Alabama vs Florida Prediction: College Football Betting Picks

Alabama vs Florida is the first big SEC conference game of the year this college football season. In this contest, the number one ranked Crimson Tide will look to show why they are again the favorites to win the national championship, while Florida looks to prove it could meet Alabama in the SEC title game. In this edition of college football picks, we look at this SEC showdown and pick our best bet for the game.

This game will be played at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at 3:30 PM ET on Saturday, September 18.

Why bet Alabama:

✅ The Crimson Tide destroyed the other ranked opponent from Florida that they faced this season when they beat the Miami Hurricanes 44-13 to start their season. Florida isn’t much better than Miami and should have just as much trouble as the Hurricanes, even if they’re at home.

✅ Florida is moving the ball at will so far this season, averaging over 600 yards per game on offense. But those yards came against Florida Atlantic and South Florida, a far cry from the level of competition they will face against Nick Saban’s squad on Saturday.

✅ Emory Jones just isn’t a good enough quarterback to navigate the Florida offense down the field consistently against Alabama. He’s thrown four interceptions already this year against those lesser Floridian opponents, which does not bode well when taking on one of the best defenses in the country.

Alabama got what essentially amounted to a week off last week, when they played and destroyed Mercer by a score of 48-14. The Crimson Tide scored the first 38 points of that game and were able to coast the rest of the way. That win came on the heels of their 31-point win over the Miami Hurricanes, where the Tide held Heisman hopeful D’Eriq King under 200 passing yards for the afternoon.

The key to Alabama’s success so far this season, besides having more talent than their opponents, has been getting off to fast starts. In addition to their early onslaught against Mercer, Alabama scored the first 27 points against Miami. A similar start against Florida could remove all doubt as to what the outcome of the game will be.

The Florida Gators are off to a strong start this season, beating two in-state Group of Five opponents in Florida Atlantic and South Florida. In those games, the Gators have racked up an impressive 381 rushing yards per game. But they know that they will not be able to move the ball that easily against the top-ranked Crimson Tide and that they will need more from their passing attack.

The question is whether or not Emory Jones can provide that much-needed punch in the passing game. This is Jones’ first real test as the starting quarterback at Florida, and it could not be a tougher challenge. He will need to be more careful with the football and avoid some of the turnovers that have plagued him, but he can’t be too careful against an Alabama team that doesn’t allow many big play opportunities.

Ready to place your bet? If not you might want to read up on the BetMGM sportsbook in our overview guide of what we think is one of the best sportsbooks in the US.