[Cactus Jack]

I think they are better than Alabama

I've watched Alabama a couple of times (they did look good in those games) and maybe it's a matter of having seen Kentucky too much (i.e., to play down to lesser competition, which I didn't witness Bama do against North Dakota) but I think Alabama is more talented and probably a better overall team.

At the same time, I still like Alabama's overall schedule better than ours. They do have Kentucky and Auburn twice, but they also seemed to fare a little better with who they play at home versus away and when they play some of the teams I have in the #5 to #12 range above. They do have a pretty rough looking three game stretch (at Tennessee, vs. Florida, and at Auburn) to end the season and play Kentucky and Mississippi State at home the week before that. I suspect that if Kentucky passes them in the SEC standings, it will need to be at that time.

FWIW, I think Oregon is usually underrated (and their tournament runs show that). The Ducks have beat Texas A&M by 10 and Alabama by 2. Their only loss is to currently ranked UCLA (by 2).

All of that to say, Alabama is really good and a little more talented than we are top to bottom. We could obviously beat them on a given night, but I think they have more ways to beat us than we have to beat them if we're talking about playing or simulating the game 10-20 times.