Alabama Football: It’s the most wonderful time of the year

Once again, Alabama football fans can thank Nick Saban for this being the most wonderful time of the year.

It is finally bowl season, the most wonderful time of the year. We finally get conclusions to the year-long debates of which conference is the strongest and whether the Big-12 Offenses really are stronger than SEC defenses and who really deserved the Heisman and whether or not UCF can back up all their talk. College football fans get two glorious weeks of great match-ups and competitive games. It’s the time of the year when Alabama football fatigue is the strongest.

I don’t think anyone in the country- aside from Danny Kanell- can argue the Alabama Crimson Tide isn’t one of the best four teams and more than deserving of its number one ranking. However, the majority of the country cheers for whoever is playing against Alabama week in and week out. Aside from Ohio State and Oklahoma fans, the rest of the country wanted Georgia to win the SEC Championship. Alabama football’s continued success every year has the entire country tired of Alabama.

An Alabama football fan born and bred, my crimson blood runs deep. I have very faint memories of going to Alabama football games as a small child, standing on the bleachers between my parents wondering why the players kept just jumping on each other in dog piles. The Shula years of being lucky to make a bowl game? I remember those. Constantly getting nagged by 10-win-season-Mark-Richt-era Georgia fans? My childhood.

Finally, the stars aligned just right in 2007, and the “GOAT” himself graced Tuscaloosa. Despite a rocky first year, fate took over, and Alabama football returned to the top of the college football world in 2009. As a teenager during the 2009 season, I remember writing our record on my mirror, shocked every Saturday that we just kept winning. The first one since 1992, the 2009 National Championship season was special. But almost a decade later, Alabama football has added four more to their trophy case: five National Championships in nine years… a remarkable precedent.

Outside of Alabama football fans who bask in the legacy Nick Saban is creating, everyone else rolls their eyes. Jealousy, sure, but the “Bama fatigue” is real. Why did Tua lose the Heisman? Bama fatigue. Alabama football is too good, so surely someone else deserves the Heisman Trophy. How has Nick Saban not won Coach of the Year in a decade despite taking his team to the College Football Playoff every year and playing a more challenging schedule than any other playoff team? Bama fatigue.

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Beginning with the 2009 season, Alabama has lost 12 games total. Since the beginning of the College Football Playoff, Alabama has been the only team to make every single playoff. A backup quarterback (somewhat ironic now) beat Alabama out of the final game the first year, but the Tide has made the final every other year. There were only 3 seconds, one Heisman trophy winner, and a pick play standing in the way of Alabama being back-to-back-to-back National Champions in 2015, 2016, and 2017. It’s 2018, and they are on their way again.

If you are truly tired of Alabama football, you should be against expanding the playoff. We moved to the Playoff system to give more teams a chance… to beat Alabama. However, that really just allows a greater opportunity for Alabama to make the Playoff. Alabama is 5-2 in Playoff games. Nick Saban is a living legend and typically doesn’t lose on the biggest stage.

In the last year of the BCS era in 2013, Alabama was removed from the National Championship race with the infamous “Kick-6” loss to Auburn. If the old BCS system had still been around last season, Alabama would not have won the national championship then as the loss to Auburn would have again knocked them out. Clemson and Oklahoma would have played for the BCS National Championship. Because the Playoff buys teams one loss per season, Alabama football squeaked in the number 4 spot and went on to win it all. An 8-team playoff would allow most reputable 2-loss teams a chance, and Alabama has not lost more than 2 games in the regular season since 2010.

Alabama football fans revel in the dynasty and legacy built every Saturday in the fall. We are witnessing history. There may never be another time such as this.

Those who suffer from Alabama fatigue, say no to expanding the playoff unless you want Alabama football to continue to run the table every year.