Where ESPN predicted Alabama will land in 2025 College Football Playoff chase

Published On: August 16, 2025

In Kalen DeBoer’s first season as coach, Alabama football missed the College Football Playoffs after losing three games in the regular season, two of which were against distinctly poor opponents. The Worldwide Leader predicted that this year’s Crimson Tide would end with a similar outcome when ESPN announced their preseason bowl forecasts on Friday.

According to predictions made by Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach, Alabama will participate in this season’s CFP Rose Bowl quarterfinal. In each of them, the Crimson Tide will face a comparable opponent in the playoffs’ opening round.

The Crimson Tide will host Arizona State in the first round, according to both ESPN predictions. Schlabach predicted the Tide would be a No. 6 seed against the No. 11 Sun Devils, while Bonagura has UA as a No. 7 seed and ASU as a No. 10.

Both authors predicted that UA will play the same opponent in Pasadena in the upcoming round. In the quarterfinals, Alabama will play Penn State, an old adversary, according to Bonagura and Schlabach.

Once more, the sowing was the only area in which the two disagreed. Schlabach projected James Franklin’s team at No. 3, while Bonagura ranked the Nittany Lions as the overall No. 2 seed.

According to both ESPN predictions, Alabama’s run ends there. Schlabach projected the Nittany Lions would fall to Clemson in the semifinals, while Bonagura has Penn State advancing to the national title game and playing Texas.

Alabama’s regular-season losses to Vanderbilt, Tennessee, and Oklahoma destroyed their chances of making the playoffs the previous season. Alabama lost to a diminished Michigan team in the ReliaQuest Bowl, but the Crimson Tide and SEC leadership spent much of the offseason griping about the CFP selection process not taking into account UA’s strength of schedule.

The Tide’s 2024 results were unsatisfactory, as DeBoer and his players have made clear. Alabama has strengthened its roster in a number of areas, including wide receiver, where Miami transfer Isaiah Horton joins Ryan Williams and Germie Bernard. This season, Ty Simpson will be the team’s new starting quarterback.

Bryant-Denny Stadium will host the Crimson Tide’s second 2025 preseason camp scrimmage on Saturday. Alabama will travel to Tallahassee on August 30 to play Florida State in the season’s first road game.

In the coaches’ and AP media’s preseason top 25 surveys, UA came in at number eight.