Does the SEC Championship Matter to Alabama?

It's official.

The College Football Playoff is expanding to 24 teams, conference championship games are going away, and the sport will never be the same. How does this affect Alabama football this season?

"Not a lot," head coach Kalen DeBoer said. "We're just so focused, you know, as you'd expect, on just what we're doing right now."

The Crimson Tide has an inside track at the College Football Playoff, fresh off a top-15 road win as the No. 5 team in last week's committee rankings. There is also a high likelihood of Alabama playing in the SEC Championship Game, which holds even more weight with the knowledge that this is officially the last year it will be played.

"We were part of it last year, and want to be a part of it again this year," DeBoer said. "It's always been something that I have not had a chance to win one, and we always want those opportunities. That's a little bit selfish, but we want our guys to experience that too."

Last year's result directly contrasts that statement. A banged-up Alabama team walked into Atlanta and got humiliated by Georgia in a 28-7 shellacking that foreshadowed the Rose Bowl blowout that would follow less than a month later. Could things have been different if Alabama instead had a week to recover? DeBoer recognizes the various pros and cons of playing in the game.

"If you win it, you do get a longer break," DeBoer said. "But that quick turnaround is a little tougher, and so you're going to risk losing some guys the more snaps you play."

Alabama does not control its own destiny to get to Atlanta. Georgia is at the top of the conference, while the Crimson Tide is one of four teams (Texas, Kentucky, Tennessee) with two SEC losses. Alabama's No. 1 goal is obviously to win out, and there are plenty of scenarios where that could happen, and the Crimson Tide watches the game from Tuscaloosa.

Would that situation, which would set the Crimson Tide up as a 10-2 team guaranteed either a home playoff game or first-round bye and an extra week to heal up, prove beneficial in the long run? How much does the pride of being able to say you won the final SEC Championship Game matter?

Alabama leads the conference with 11 wins since the game was first played in 1992. DeBoer ended with a definitive statement on the Crimson Tide's pursuit of a 12th.

"As competitive people here at Alabama, we want to win that game," DeBoer said. "We're going to play as hard as we can right now and want to be in that game because that's what the schedule is and what the goals are."