In case you live under a rock or were more focused on other things last night, I’m here to inform you that Alabama won the College Football National Championship last night. This is their sixth national title since 2009….should I repeat that just to help it sink in? This is their SIXTH national title since 2009. That’s 50% of the national titles in that timeframe! How is that even possible? Last night’s 52-24 destruction of Ohio State brought Alabama their 17th title since the founding of their program which is the most in college football. Well, yes, technically Princeton and Yale have more titles, but those don’t count. I’m sorry.
So here we sit seven years into the College Football Playoff era, and Alabama has missed the playoff just once. They’ve missed the championship game just twice and not won the whole thing four times. We can sit here and argue about if the NCAA should add more teams into the playoff or if allowing players to get paid is going to destroy college athletics. But here’s the truth of it – Alabama is a college football institution now. It doesn’t matter if you have 16 teams or 8 or 4 or go back to the BCS model of 2, Bama is going to be there. So get used to it.
I’ve spent many years hating on Alabama and rooting against them, but after watching the game last night, I realized that there’s no point. If you don’t want to see Alabama in the running for the title every year, just stop watching the sport.
Nick Saban watched LSU take the college football landscape by storm last year and said, forget them, I can do it better. The team lead Power 5 schools in points per game. They were second in yards per game. Their quarterback finished third in the Heisman vote. Their best wide receiver won it. Bama had one of the best, if not the best, offenses of all time. Their defense was impenetrable. Yes, they’re losing a lot of those great players to the draft. But does it matter? Absolutely not. They’re going to fill all of those holes with replacement 5-star recruits.
I used to think that once Nick Saban retired Bama would struggle, but I don’t think that’s the case any more. Saban is going to groom his replacement, and the allure of the school is going to remain. So, if you’re a college football fan, it’s time to get used to this. For better or for worse, Alabama isn’t going away.