Alabama's playoff fate could hinge on SEC championship clash with Georgia

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Alabama's playoff fate could hinge on SEC championship clash with Georgia

2025-12-03 07:34 Last Updated At：07:40

Alabama's trip to the SEC championship offers some reward and plenty of risk.

The Crimson Tide's path to the playoff narrowed before the calendar flipped to September after a loss to Florida State in Week 1. Months later, despite winning 10 of their last 11 games and clinching the SEC championship game, Alabama still isn't a sure thing for the College Football Playoff.

That could change this weekend. A win against Georgia on Saturday would secure a spot for Alabama as one of the five highest-ranked conference winners. A loss would put the Tide’s fate in the hands of the CFP committee, which could dock them for a third loss — even if it stemmed from a championship game competitors didn't qualify for.

Saturday gives Alabama the chance to take control of its own destiny, and the Tide have no interest in giving any outsiders final say.

As far as second-year coach Kalen DeBoer is concerned, his team’s future shouldn’t be a topic of debate. The Tide are 10-2 this season. Their only loss aside from a Week 1 blunder was a close one against a ranked Oklahoma team in Week 12. That was after knocking off six conference opponents, four of which were ranked.

“We’re in the championship game with a 7-1 record, won four conference games on the road in the toughest conference,” DeBoer said Monday. “I just think when you’re really trying to have a playoff, you need your best teams in there. There’s no doubt in my mind that we are one of the best teams. I don’t say that arrogantly. I just really believe that’s what it is.”

It doesn’t help that the CFP committee is subjective by nature, and the playoff race is overcrowded. But no matter how the numbers are crunched, even with a loss, DeBoer argues his squad has proved it belongs.

“There’s a ton of metrics I know people look at: strength of record, FPI. We’re right at the top,” he said. “Playing in your conference championship in the SEC shouldn’t be something that we’re worried about as far as what that would do to our playoff hopes. We got here by earning it.”

Should Alabama lose on Saturday, earning a CFP bid would be historic. No three-loss team has ever appeared in the playoff. Alabama would have to compete for one of the seven remaining spots. In the SEC alone, Texas A&M, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Vanderbilt would have stronger overall records. In other words, Alabama’s back is against the wall, but that’s not a new feeling this season.

“Man, I feel like honestly we’ve kind of had that mindset ever since our first loss,” senior linebacker Deontae Lawson said. “Just control what we can control, and that’s doing our best to win the game, leave nothing up for chance.”

The Crimson Tide have had Georgia's number in recent years. Kirby Smart is 1-7 against his former team, and Bama has won the past three. In September, Alabama snapped Georgia's 33-game win streak at home with a 24-21 victory. That offers the locker room some peace of mind ahead of the heavyweight showdown.

“We’ve already beat this team before. We’re going to go out there and make sure we do the same thing," Tim Keenan III said. "We’re going to make sure we handle business on our own end and not leave it up to the committee to make decisions for us.”

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Video captures Minneapolis immigration arrest in a city on edge after shooting of Renee Good

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal agents carrying out immigration arrests in Minnesota's Twin Cities region already shaken by the fatal shooting of a woman rammed the door of one home Sunday and pushed their way inside, part of what the Department of Homeland Security has called its largest enforcement operation ever.

In a dramatic scene similar to those playing out across Minneapolis, agents captured a man in the home just minutes after pepper spraying protesters outside who had confronted the heavily-armed federal agents. Along the residential street, protesters honked car horns, banged on drums and blew whistles in attempts to disrupt the operation.

Video of the clash showed some agents pushing back protesters while a distraught woman later emerged from the house with a document that federal agents presented to arrest the man. Signed by an immigration officer, the document — unlike a warrant signed by a judge — does not authorize forced entry into a private residence. A warrant signed by an immigration officer only authorizes arrest in a public area.

Immigrant advocacy groups have done extensive “know-your-rights” campaigns urging people not to open their doors unless agents have a court order signed by a judge.

But within minutes of ramming the door in a neighborhood filled with single-family homes, the handcuffed man was led away and soon gone.

More than 2,000 immigration arrests have been made in Minnesota since the enforcement operation began at the beginning of December, said Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.

The Twin Cities — the latest target in President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement campaign — is bracing for what is next after 37-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed by an immigration officer Wednesday.

“We’re seeing a lot of immigration enforcement across Minneapolis and across the state, federal agents just swarming around our neighborhoods,” said Jason Chavez, a Minneapolis city councilmember. “They’ve definitely been out here.”

Chavez, the son of Mexican immigrants who represents an area with a growing immigrant population, said he is closely monitoring information from chat groups about where residents are seeing agents operating.

People holding whistles positioned themselves in freezing temperatures on street corners Sunday in the neighborhood where Good was killed, watching for any signs of federal agents.

More than 20,000 people have taken part in a variety of trainings to become “observers” of enforcement activities in Minnesota since the 2024 election, said Luis Argueta, a spokesperson for Unidos MN, a local human rights organization .

“It’s a role that people choose to take on voluntarily, because they choose to look out for their neighbors,” Argueta said.

The protests have been largely peaceful, but residents remained anxious. On Monday, Minneapolis public schools will start offering remote learning for the next month in response to concerns that children might feel unsafe venturing out while tensions remain high.

Many schools closed last week after Good’s shooting and the upheaval that followed.

While the enforcement activity continues, two of the state’s leading Democrats said that the investigation into Good's shooting death should not be overseen solely by the federal government.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and U.S. Sen. Tina Smith said in separate interviews Sunday that state authorities should be included in the investigation because the federal government has already made clear what it believes happened.

“How can we trust the federal government to do an objective, unbiased investigation, without prejudice, when at the beginning of that investigation they have already announced exactly what they saw — what they think happened," Smith said on ABC’s "This Week."

The Trump administration has defended the officer who shot Good in her car, saying he was protecting himself and fellow agents and that Good had “weaponized” her vehicle.

Todd Lyons, acting director of ICE, defended the officer on Fox News Channel’s “The Sunday Briefing.”

"That law enforcement officer had milliseconds, if not short time to make a decision to save his life and his other fellow agents,” he said.

Lyons also said the administration’s enforcement operations in Minnesota wouldn't be needed “if local jurisdictions worked with us to turn over these criminally illegal aliens once they are already considered a public safety threat by the locals.”

The killing of Good by an ICE officer and the shooting of two people by federal agents in Portland, Oregon, led to dozens of protests across the country over the weekend.

Thousands of people marched Saturday in Minneapolis, where Homeland Security called its deployment of immigration officers in the Twin Cities its biggest ever immigration enforcement operation.

Associated Press journalists Giovanna Dell’Orto in Minneapolis, Thomas Strong in Washington, Bill Barrow in Atlanta, and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.