How Big Would An Ole Miss Win Over 'Gold Standard' Alabama Be?

Does a hypothetical win for the Rebels over Alabama on Saturday immediately lose some of its value when the final whistle blows?

For over a decade, there has been one gold standard within the Southeastern Conference: beat Alabama.

If you could knock off the Alabama Crimson Tide, it was viewed as a rite of passage into the premier echelon of college football. To put it in simpler terms, it means you had officially "arrived" and joined the big boys' table.

Alabama has been the goal, the aspiration of college football since shortly after the arrival of Nick Saban in Tuscaloosa, and even after a rocky start to the 2023 season, it still is.

But could that change on Saturday?

Entering this week, Alabama is still that: the gold standard. It may not win the national championship every season, but it is always a threat to do so, and its recruiting rankings make it hard to believe that the dynasty could fall.

To put it bluntly, before the game starts, this win would mean a lot for the Ole Miss Rebels. But what about after the hypothetical win?

Let me explain. Much like driving a new car off the lot immediately loses value, a win over a two-loss Alabama team is, in theory, less valuable than a win over a one-loss Alabama team. So, currently, it's more valuable for Ole Miss to beat Alabama now than it would be after the win actually takes place, a win that would give the Tide their second loss of the season.

Make sense? Not really? Okay, let me try again.

What I'm getting at is this: the game between Ole Miss and Alabama is always going to be important, especially this season while the SEC West still exists as a division. Lane Kiffin vs. Nick Saban will always draw headlines, but if Ole Miss wins on Saturday, what will the national narrative be?

In my opinion, it will be more on the fact that Alabama's dynasty is over, not on Ole Miss arriving as a national threat or playoff contender in college football.

Ole Miss fans celebrate their 2014 win over Alabama by storming the field at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium and tearing down the goal posts

Is that fair? Maybe, because it's possible that Alabama really has lost a step, but at the same time, it's still Alabama. That brand and coach and team are still just as powerful now as they were two or ten years ago, if not more.

Ole Miss' goal right now is to reach this "gold standard." But if it does achieve this goal and topple the Tide on Saturday, will it be as "impressive" as in years past?

That's a question I don't have an answer to, but I do know that both teams have a heavy emphasis on this game for very different reasons. One is trying to topple a dynasty, and the other is trying to keep it alive.

This game on Saturday is about more than just the SEC pecking order. It's about national perception, both in 2023 and moving forward.