Alabama football clinches SEC West, spot in SEC championship game with win vs. Kentucky-InfoExpress

Questions swirled around Alabama following a Week 2 home loss to Texas. Would the Crimson Tide, college football’s preeminent program over the past 15 years, even be able to make the SEC championship game?

After two months of hard and diligent work following the 34-24 setback against the Longhorns, Alabama offered up its final answer Saturday with a 49-21 blowout of Kentucky at Kroger Field in Lexington, Kentucky.

With that, coach Nick Saban’s team improved to 9-1 overall and 7-0 in SEC play — and, most important, clinched an SEC West title and a spot in the conference championship game in Atlanta.

With one SEC game remaining — the Iron Bowl at Auburn on Nov. 25 — the Tide could still finish tied with Ole Miss atop the division standings, but it would have a head-to-head tiebreaker over the Rebels by virtue of its 24-10 victory on Sept. 23 at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa.

It’s Alabama’s 10th division title since 2008. In eight of the previous nine championship game appearances, it won, with the lone exception coming in 2008, when it lost to Florida 31-20. During that time, no other SEC West team has more than three division titles, with Auburn and LSU tied at that mark.

It’s the Tide’s 15th division title since the SEC adopted a divisional model for the 1992 season.

Who will Alabama play in the SEC championship game?

In all likelihood, the Tide will face a familiar foe in Atlanta.

Heading into its game Saturday against Mississippi, Georgia has a two-game lead in the loss column over second-place Tennessee and Missouri. With just two conference games remaining, the Bulldogs will clinch the SEC East with a win against Ole Miss. Should they lose, they could secure the division crown next Saturday with a road victory against Tennessee.

Missouri and Tennessee play Saturday, with the loser of that matchup being eliminated from SEC championship game contention. If the Vols lose, Georgia would clinch the SEC East regardless of how it does the rest of the season (as it has a win over Missouri) in the event they finish tied atop the division standings.