Top-ranked Alabama seeks state supremacy

A win over Auburn would set up a critical SEC title game.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — It’s how Nick Saban approaches every game, one at a time, as the most important game because it’s the next game.

Only the cliches ring a little truer for No. 1 Alabama leading up to Saturday’s game with Auburn. Win, and the Crimson Tide regains state supremacy and keeps those national title hopes flourishing.

Lose, and that top ranking vanishes and the Tigers are No. 1 in the state for the seventh straight year.

“It’s like having a one-game season,” Saban said Monday. “It doesn’t matter what you’ve done before this, or what’s coming up next. It’s all about this game. It’s all about Alabama and Auburn. It’s not about where you’re ranked or what your record is or the BCS or any of that stuff. It’s really about this game and this week.”

Alabama (11-0, 7-0 Southeastern Conference) has the luxury of taking that approach with its comfortable perch atop the Bowl Championship Series standings and the national rankings.

Those other teams — specifically No. 4 Texas and No. 3 Oklahoma — can fret over the BCS standings and strain over the mental gymnastics it takes to figure out what gets them in the national championship game, or at least their own league title match.

The Tide’s formula for a title shot seems much simpler, if hardly easy: Win the next two games over Auburn and No. 3 Florida for the SEC championship in Atlanta next weekend.

“We’ve just got to go take care of our business and everything will fall into place,” Tide quarterback John Parker Wilson said. “Other teams have got to worry about other guys losing or winning or this and that. For us, it’s just going out and doing what we’ve been doing.”

The Tide has stayed above the fray with all those powerhouse Big 12 Conference teams pounding away at each other and Florida rising fast with a series of dominating victories.

Alabama has been No. 1 three weeks running and finds comfort in knowing it’s unlikely to be in the same position as Auburn four years ago, when the Tigers were unbeaten and wound up the third wheel for the BCS title game between Southern California and Oklahoma.

“I guess that’s the way you’d want it to be,” Tide safety Rashad Johnson said. “You don’t want anything else to be able to control your destiny except for you. That’s pretty much what we have left for us. We just need to focus on it one week at a time and not get ahead of ourselves.