No SEC football program will ever catch up with the Alabama Crimson Tide

Preseason optimism abounds across the fanbases of most SEC football programs. Going back to 1934, with the addition of Oklahoma and Texas, the new SEC has ten football programs that have won 49 national championships. A few of those championships are iffy claims; including the Alabama Crimson Tide's from 1941, but there is no debating the SEC's national championship dominance.

In 1998, the BCS championships changed college football. An even bigger change occurred with the first CFB Playoffs in 2014. Perhaps the most significant change of all will happen in 2024 because of the 12-team Playoff format. The expanded Playoff field brings with it the reduced importance of winning a conference championship.

For many SEC football fans winning the SEC Championship will be less important. Traditionalists will argue winning an SEC Championship will continue to be a big deal. But it will not be the same as it was for decades. The Alabama Football 2023 season will be most remembered for losing to Michigan in the national semi-final, rather than beating Georgia for the SEC Championship.

Alabama Crimson Tide Dominance

With the 27-24 win, the Alabama Crimson Tide program won its 30th SEC Championship. Way behind Alabama in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place for SEC titles are Georgia (14), Tennessee (13), and LSU (12). The amount of time it would take for those three programs to surpass the Crimson Tide is staggering. If the Bulldogs won every SEC Championship for the next 17 seasons, Georgia's total of 31 would be No. 1. Of course it will never happen. The longest run ever of SEC Championships is five, from Paul Bryant's 1971-1975 teams.

Just for fun, even if Georgia won 17 consecutive SEC Champions, beginning in 2024, it would take until 2040 for the Bulldogs to pass the Crimson Tide. Give Tennessee and LSU even longer hypothetical runs, it would take the Vols until 2041 and the Bengal Tigers until 2042. It could not happen until 2047 for Florida and Auburn.

Not just for fun is the almost irrefutable claim that no SEC football program will ever surpass the Alabama Crimson Tide in SEC Championships. None, nada, not ever, fait accompli, and any other description that applies to the zero chance the rest of the SEC will ever catch up to Alabama.

Auburn fans will hate the memory, but some years ago, former Auburn head coach Pat Dye explained the reality of comparing the Crimson Tide and the Tigers. Talking to Paul Finebaum, Dye said "... we could play football for another 500 years and we couldn’t catch up with the tradition Alabama has..."

Pat Dye was not wrong and the same can be said for the other 14 SEC football programs that will forever be chasing the Crimson Tide.