Alabama Coach DeBoer Snubbed in Final Poll Shake-Up

Kalen DeBoer and Alabama felt disrespected in the final NCAA coaches rankings. The Crimson Tide made the playoff, reached the SEC title game, and advanced to the quarterfinals, yet DeBoer did not land anywhere near the top 20, according to the final Coaches Poll.

The strangest part came from Navy head coach Brian Newberry, who delivered one of the wildest ballots of the year. While most coaches viewed Alabama as a top-10 team after their postseason run, Newberry dropped the Tide all the way down at No. 21.

That ranking was a major outlier since Alabama officially finished No. 9 in the final poll. It also raised eyebrows because Alabama had just beaten Oklahoma in the first round of the playoffs a few weeks earlier.

Despite the head-to-head result, Newberry placed Oklahoma at No. 13 — eight spots higher than the team that knocked them out. To add more fuel, he listed his own Navy squad inside the top 19, giving himself a boost on his ballot.

Newberry also placed several unlikely programs over the Crimson Tide. His ballot had Vanderbilt at 14th, Virginia 15th, Tulane 16th, James Madison 17th, North Texas 18th, Navy 19th, and Old Dominion 20th.

The Vanderbilt placement was extra strange because Alabama handed the Commodores their first loss of the year, which helped keep them out of the playoff field. And Old Dominion over Alabama was the type of ranking that had fans asking questions.

Most other coaches did not share Newberry’s view. Many had Alabama around No. 8, and coaches like Ryan Carty of Delaware and Jon Sumrall of Florida even placed the Tide as high as No. 6 on their ballots.

The national championship-winning head coach at Indiana put Alabama at No. 12, even after beating them in the Rose Bowl. DeBoer cast a more favorable vote himself, ranking the Tide at No. 7 after an 11–4 season and an SEC Championship appearance.

In the end, poll ballots are opinions, not facts, but Newberry’s ballot stood out as the biggest snub of the year. Alabama fans may feel annoyed, but the Tide still finished inside the top-10 where it mattered.

They also finished with a top-three recruiting class, which gives them more momentum heading into the 2026 season. The only question now is whether that momentum translates on the field.

DeBoer Faces Pressure in Year 3

Year 3 under DeBoer comes with sky-high expectations and plenty of pressure. Alabama has posted four losses in back-to-back seasons, and the Tide have not played for a national title in four years, which has fans getting restless.

The college football landscape is more balanced now, but that does not make the chatter any quieter. Many fans want to see Alabama return to the Nick Saban level of dominance, and criticism grows fast when the bar is that high.

Some analysts expect Alabama to land somewhere between No. 10 and No. 12 in the polls this season. But for die-hard Bama fans, anything short of a national championship run will feel like failure.

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