Alabama Football: Other programs challenging the Tide as ‘Most Hated’

Alabama Football: College football world moving beyond the Crimson Tide as the game’s most hated program.

Success can breed contempt. The Alabama Football program has been reviled even before its renewed success under Nick Saban. Saban was on a national hit list before ever arriving in Tuscaloosa, spurred by his exit from the Miami Dolphins.

The rancor against Saban and the Crimson Tide grew with each milestone of success. Part of the response was, no doubt, driven by human nature. ‘Everybody loves a winner’ has never been completely true. Jealousy blocks such a pure response.

Nick Saban has a saying, not designed to comment on hatred, but still fitting. The Saban quote is,

"Mediocre people don’t like high achievers, and high achievers don’t like mediocre people."

Saban was not talking about friends or family. He was talking about the attitude between competitors, in and outside the world of sports.

Whether it is jealousy or some other emotion, whatever drives the condition Saban describes, can apply to fans as well. More than anything, past success, made the New England Patriots the NFL’s most hated team.

The Alabama Crimson Tide has likewise earned the same distinction. Last summer some Alabama football fans were dismayed when the Crimson Tide barely made the top ten of the most hated college football teams of all-time. The nine more-hated teams than the 2012 Alabama Crimson Tide included a couple of teams Tide fans certainly hate. One of them was the 2018 UCF team, the season after new Tennessee AD, Danny White claimed a bogus UCF National Championship.

Crimson Tide fans strongly agree the 2010 Auburn Tigers team, with Scam Newton, belongs on the list. Other teams more-hated than the 2012 Tide were 2017 Oklahoma, 2002 Ohio State, 1993 Notre Dame, 1996 Florida, 2014 Florida State, 2005 Southern Cal and the 1986 Miami Hurricanes.

Crimson Tide fans were happier with a Wall Street Journal survey in 2018.

A recent list covering the last 40 college football seasons, again has the Alabama Football program coming in second.

Perhaps coming in second to the hated 1980s Canes is not so bad. Alabama football fans want to be No. 1 in everything, but the Canes thrived off being reviled and they were even better at it than they were on the football field – where they were outstanding.

The reality is hatred of the Crimson Tide has somewhat given way to respect, even if much of the respect is begrudged. Nick Saban is the reason why. Most of the national, college football media admires, even likes Nick Saban. What he has accomplished is the main reason. What he has become is also a factor. The now grandfather has mellowed. Not in the heat of battle of course and probably not on the practice field, but Saban has become willing to show a softer side.

Shedding a few tears during the recent National Championship celebration was not the first sign. He openly talks about loving his players. It is clear that most of the players who stick with him for three or four seasons love him back.

Hated, admired and loved, represent a wide range of responses to Alabama football. Maybe being mostly hated, rather than most hated is not too bad.