It's not a new question. Many of us have always wondered how the best team in college football might fare in a neutral-site matchup with the worst team in the NFL. But right now, the hypothetical is particularly enticing. Why? Because the Alabama Crimson Tide have been so dominant in the SEC and the Jacksonville Jaguars have become so incredibly anemic in the AFC South.
Not only has Nick Saban's program won three of the last four national championships, but Alabama is 4-0 this year, having outscored its opponents by an average of 21 points per game. Jacksonville, on the other hand, is 0-4 and has been outscored 129-31.
Still, the reality is that the Jags — or any other NFL team — would defeat Alabama — or any other college football program — the vast majority of the time.
Yes, Alabama has had 33 players selected in the NFL draft since 2008, and sure, they have eight players ranked in the top 200 for the 2014 draft, but the age/experience gap is still too large, and depth is the major difference.
Put it this way: If every member of the Jaguars and the top 53 players on the Crimson Tide became available in the 2014 draft, which team would produce more picks, early and late? Jacksonville, without a doubt.
This week, John Ewing at PredictionMachine.com ran simulations for games between all four of the NFL's winless teams and the Crimson Tide. Jacksonville has the most trouble of all four 0-4 teams, but the Jags still beat Alabama 91.4 percent of the time.
So there's a very good chance that if they met 10 times, the Jaguars would win all 10 games.
More from Ewing:
For context, the most likely straight-up victory of the NFL season thus far came in the Jacksonville @ Seattle game, where the Seahawks were 95.0% likely to win over the Jaguars. Jacksonville @ Denver will likely top that number in two weeks. So Alabama, or any college team, against even the worst NFL teams is like watching the Jaguars play the Seahawks or Broncos.
So the Jaguars are really bad and Alabama is really good, but the two are still — quite literally — in different leagues. Let's keep that in mind.
