Alabama has its title shot.

Now, Nick Saban has a month to convince his team that it didn't already win its title.

That's the sense following Alabama's 32-12 rout of then-No. 1 Florida in Saturday's SEC Championship.

The only team left that can beat Alabama ... is Alabama.

The Crimson Tide will be the easy favorite against the Longhorns, which survived clock mismanagement and Nebraska to win the Big 12 final. The Tide and Longhorns will have a month to digest questions such as, "How in the world can Colt McCoy move Texas against an Alabama defense that made Tim Tebow cry?"

And try as Will Muschamp will against one of his ex-bosses, how can the Longhorns stop an Alabama offense that looks more balanced now than at any point this season?

That will be the national chatter from now to Jan. 7, when Alabama and Texas play in Pasadena, Calif.

Don't think so? Then check out the "scores" in the latest polls.

The Tide hooked the Horns 105-6 in first-place votes in the Harris Interactive poll.

It was 58-2 in the Associated Press poll and 54-4 in USA Today coaches poll, so voters chose Alabama by roughly the same ratio throughout.

And why not, when Alabama has almost the whole checklist coming into this game.

Offense: Yes, check.

Consider the SEC defenses Alabama played all season. Consider how the Tide looked against a great Florida defense, and compare it to how Texas looked against the best defenses it faced all season.

It wasn't pretty against Oklahoma or Nebraska.

Moving on, check defense for Alabama.

Check head coach for Alabama.

Keep going to intangibles, though, and there's an urge to check Texas.

Texas players will hear all the talk of long odds, and it will sound familiar. They heard it through December of 2005. They had no chance against pre-crowned champion Southern Cal.

Texas won one of the best BCS title games ever played.

It was Vince Young, not Matt Leinart, who stood under the confetti shower in Pasadena, and Texas was the most recent non-SEC team to win a BCS title.

Saban will surely remind his team of how the Longhorns tasted such "positive self-gratification" at the end of the 2005 season. It's one of his favorite terms.

He'll no doubt preach the gospel of, "Get over yourself."

Then again, he preached all of that through December of last year. The Tide never got over losing to Florida in the SEC final and lost to Utah in the Sugar Bowl.

Saban must get Alabama's players over beating Florida this time.

He must get them over beating the team that, save for one week in the Associated Press poll, was No. 1 all season. He must get his players over any notion that they already won the 1-vs.-2 game, and the plus-one is in Pasadena.

Florida was the team that motivated Alabama for 12 months. This season was all about beating the Gators, which denied them a national title shot a year ago.

The Tide did that Saturday and in dominating fashion, but do Saban's subjects get that beating Florida was about getting to something beyond Florida? Do they get that it's about making the game that's officially recognized as the national championship, all apologies to the one played in Atlanta?

Be sure that Texas gets it.

Be sure that Saban gets it and will do his mind-bending best to sell it.

If the Tide buys in as it has all season, then it should win its 13th national title.

BCS Championship game: No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 2 Texas Rose Bowl, Pasadena, Calif.
Jan. 7, 7 p.m., ABC 33/40, 95.5 FM