![[Staff Photo/Gary Cosby Jr.]College Football Playoffs Alabama Vs Cincinnati](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,x_0,y_353,w_5670,h_3189/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ImagnImages/mmsport/187/01kr1m4rf2ztfpk0e13q.jpg "[Staff Photo/Gary Cosby Jr.]College Football Playoffs Alabama Vs Cincinnati")
In sports punditry, the decades-old Paul Finebaum approach works. Negativism is an easier sell than optimism, especially when it is aimed at the Alabama Crimson Tide.
Until September, college football fans will wade through 'way too early' then 'too early' to final preseason power rankings and game predictions. Many Alabama football fans are already weary. That is because, almost across the board, the Crimson Tide is being taken so lightly.
SI.com projects the Crimson Tide as the SEC's No. 6, 2026 team. Earlier in the offseason, Athlon Sports had Alabama tabbed as the SEC's No. 7 team. ESPN recently ranked the offseason success of all power conference teams. Alabama was ranked No. 7 among SEC teams.
It is a challenge for Alabama Crimson Tide fans to ignore so much gloom and doom.
There is an alternative. For those who buffer themselves against recency bias, there is another perspective.
Two things about Alabama are undeniably true. Alabama's latest football dynasty was college football's greatest of all-time. Like all dynasties it died. The second point is Alabama has a history of coming back from crushing defeats.
Alabama Crimson Tide Revivals
Alabama got its butt kicked by Indiana in last season's Playoff game. The storied Alabama program is not supposed to lose 38-3 in a postseason game, even if the victor did win the national championship. But the Crimson Tide has incurred humiliating post-season defeats before, all of which were followed by national championship success.
The 1972 Orange Bowl was similar to the Alabama vs. Indiana game. The Nebraska Cornhuskers manhandled the Crimson Tide 38-6. In the eight seasons that followed, Alabama finished outside the college football top five only twice and won national championships in 1973, 1978, and 1979.
Alabama was not competitive in the 1991 Fiesta Bowl, with underdog Louisville jumping out to a 21-0 first-quarter lead. The final score was 34-7, with the Tide's only score coming from an interception return. Two seasons later, the 1992 National Champion was the Alabama Crimson Tide.
In the 2019 National Championship Game, Clemson led Alabama 14-13 after a quarter. Alabama scored only a field goal the rest of the way, as Clemson cruised to a 44-16 beatdown. Two seasons later, Alabama was a National Champion again.
Perhaps the history means nothing for the Crimson Tide's future. Maybe Kalen DeBoer does not have in him what Bear Bryant, Gene Stallings, and Nick Saban did. Somewhere between a maybe and a probably is that championship legacies may grow dim, but rarely do they die. And the Alabama Crimson Tide has a college football championship legacy like no other.
Add us as a preferred source on Google