Alabama Football: Moments where Tide fans had to cheer for other teams

Alabama football fans sometimes have to root for other teams.

In college football, we grade fans based on their loyalty. You have to be a fan for Alabama football, basketball, and every other sport. There’s no other team you are allowed to love. However, there comes a time when Crimson Tide fans must root for another team.

This sounds crazy, but hear me out. The end goal for every college football season is to see the Crimson Tide win it all. Unless Alabama goes undefeated, they do not control their own destiny in that sense. There have been plenty of times where Alabama needed other teams to lose in order for them to make it to the promised land.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at some times in Alabama football history where fans have cheered for other teams. They become the biggest fans of these other schools for one Saturday. As soon as the game is over, they go back to despising every other team in the nation.

Times where Alabama football fans cheered for other teams.

Rooting for Iowa State in 2011

This is the season where Alabama football got their revenge on the LSU Tigers in the National Championship. However, it took a lot for the Crimson Tide to get to this moment. After losing to LSU, Alabama went on a tear to prove that they were a great team. Outside of that, it took losses from other contenders. The biggest game that had an impact on Alabama’s future was Iowa State upsetting Oklahoma State. OSU was ranked above the Crimson Tide after Alabama’s loss to LSU, and they had an undefeated season. This ended up being the only loss for them in 2011. Once Alabama football fans realized that this could be an upset, the Crimson Tide were cheering for the Cyclones. Oklahoma State ended up blowing out OU in the conference championship game, so Alabama still barely made it into the BCS National Championship.

Rooting for Arkansas in 2015

This should be obvious for most Crimson Tide fans. After losing to Ole Miss early in the 2015 season, Alabama no longer controlled their own destiny to make it to the SEC Championship. Could Alabama have made it to the CFP without a conference title? Perhaps. However, no one wanted to risk it. Thankfully, a miraculous lateral by Hunter Henry kept Arkansas in this game. It is one of my favorite plays that doesn’t include Alabama.

Wanting Jalen Hurts to upset LSU

This is one of the few times where Alabama football fans rooted for a team with nothing to gain for themselves. After Alabama did not make it to the College Football Playoff, they simply wanted to see their former quarterback succeed. Jalen Hurts and the Sooners struggled against LSU, but it felt nice to cheer for Jalen in one final college football game before he went to the NFL.

There are plenty of times that Alabama football fans root for other teams. You always cheer for whoever plays Auburn or Clemson, and you can root for a little chaos when a big team might be upset. These are just the top times that come to mind.