Alabama Crimson Tide: All-Time Bowl Game King

The Alabama Crimson Tide football program in the King of Bowl Games. No other college football program comes close to Alabama’s bowl game history.

Twelve current FBS teams had played in bowl games before the Alabama Crimson Tide played in its first, the 1926 Rose Bowl. The Crimson Tide shocked the college football world that year, upsetting the heavily favored Washington Huskies. College football has been chasing the Crimson Tide ever since.

The Alabama Crimson Tide’s bowl dominance was established in a seven-game run that began with the 1926 Rose Bowl and ran through the 1943 Orange Bowl. The Alabama record in five Rose Bowls, one Coton Bowl and one Orange Bowl was 5-1-1.

The Crimson Tide’s next bowl era brought quite different results. Beginning with the 1945 Sugar Bowl and going through the 1960 Bluebonnet Bowl, Alabama had a bowl record of 2-4-1.

With the national powerhouse Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant built in the early 1960s, the Crimson Tide went on another run of bowl success. From 1962 through 1967 Alabama played in three Sugar Bowls and three Orange Bowls. The Tide’s record in the six bowl games was 5-1.

Suddenly, in the 1967 season, the Alabama Football bowl magic disappeared. The Tide’s poor bowl results came in a game Bryant was not sad about losing. Bear Bryant, like Nick Saban, hated losing more than he loved winning, but when Texas A&M, coached by Gene Stallings beat Alabama in the 1968 Cotton Bowl, Bryant grabbed Stallings at midfield and lifted up his former player and former Crimson Tide assistant in mutual jubilation.

After the Cotton Bowl loss, Alabama would not win another bowl game until the 1975 Sugar Bowl. In the run of eight bowl games, the Crimson Tide record was 0-6-1. The tie, in the 1970 Bluebonnet Bowl, was almost worse than the losses. Playing against Oklahoma, in what had been an ugly game for both teams, Alabama had a 45-yard, field goal chance to win. The field goal attempt hooked low and left, having been hit so poorly it went nowhere near the goalposts.

Most Impressive Alabama Crimson Tide Bowl Run

The Crimson Tide went on another impressive bowl run beginning in the 1975 Sugar Bowl, winning 10 of its next 11 bowl games. The only loss came against the Texas Longhorns in the 1982 Cotton Bowl.

Including BCS Championship games and CFB Playoff Championship games, the Alabama Crimson Tide has competed in a college football record, 75 bowl games. Alabama also holds the record for bowl wins, with 45.

Unlike some other SEC teams, in the Crimson Tide’s most inferior bowl season, it never played in the Birmingham Bowl.