'Blue Blood' and Alabama Football should be linked forever, but some will disagree

Anyone looking for a spirited summer debate can bring up the subject of college football blue bloods. One reason for fertile grounds for debate, is that there are many definitions for what defines a blue blood. Without precision, many fans are content to make definitive lists.

Any blue blood list that does not include Alabama Football is bogus. Including Oklahoma, Miami, USC, and even Notre Dame would round out a short and credible blue blood list.

Ohio State, Michigan, and Nebraska fans would expect a longer list to include their teams. A guess is more than twenty other college football programs have fans primed to claim their program is also a blue blood.

Other fans, in what appears to be growing numbers, believe the game has passed blue bloods by, and the distinction no longer provides any value.

I hold on to the notion that 'Blue Bloods' still exist and that as much as ever before, they still matter. That is an easy position for me to take given that Alabama Football is 'The Blue-est of Blue Bloods of All-Time'.

Let's take another perspective and consider a tweet provided by CFB Kings. In this case, the only measurement is National Championships. Over the last 50 college football seasons, 1974-2023, only four programs have won more than three national championships. Southern Cal and Oklahoma have won four; Miami has won five and the Alabama Crimson Tide has won nine.

Including the six programs that have won three national titles in the same period, shows 10 programs have won 40 of the last 50 national championships.

The six, three-time National Champions are Clemson, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, LSU, and Nebraska.

Further details about the 10 teams shown above provide different insights. Nick Saban often reminded his players that success is not a continuum. Winning a national championship provides no guarantee of future success. Nebraska has not won a Natty since 1997. The most recent for Oklahoma is 2000 and for Maimi, 2001. Florida had a 7-6 record in the third season after winning the 2008 National Championship. In the third, fourth, and fifth seasons after FSU's 2013 Natty, the Seminoles won a total of just 18 games.

Going back to 2009, the longest span of Alabama football seasons without a national championship is the current, three-season one. If Kalen DeBoer fails to win it all in 2024 or 2025, some who still value blue bloods will proclaim that Alabama Football is not one.