In a time far, far away…before there was even a Southeastern Conference, Alabama Crimson Tide football was doing more than its part for college football teams in the South. And under the heading of “What have you done for me lately,” Bama football has strengthened its hold as standard of the SEC.
There was no reason to expect anything but more of the same from both Alabama and from the SEC as it began its 87th season in 2020. Although last season the Tide had fallen short of its 18th national championship and sixth under Coach Nick Saban, entering his 14th season at the Crimson Tide helm, the conference champion, LSU, had continued SEC dominance of college football.
Most early polls had Alabama as a likely contender for this year’s national title and no fewer than three Crimson Tide games were considered among the nation’s most intriguing – Southern Cal to start the season in Arlington, Texas; Georgia in Tuscaloosa to open SEC play on Sept. 19; and LSU in what has become national must-see TV. Sprinkle in the annual Third Saturday in October classic on the fourth Saturday in October this year (Oct. 24) of Bama at Tennessee and the annual Alabama-Auburn game, this year in Tuscaloosa, and Tide tickets would be in high demand.
We know, of course, that not everything is going to go as planned. One feels comfortable in proclaiming that no section of the country is more passionate about its college football than the South, and thus it’s the coaches, players, and fans of Southern football who are most uncomfortable as the nation and world are ravaged by the novel coronavirus leading to COVID-19.
The Big 10 and the Pac-12 have already snipped any plans for a full football season by announcing plans for playing conference games only this season. From an Alabama standpoint, the only disappointment from those first tremblers is the loss of the match-up of traditional bluebloods, the Tide and the USC Trojans.
The action of those two members of the Power 5, however, did raise caution flags. One is that the SEC, along with the ACC and the Big 12, are likely to be not too far behind in stripping down to a schedule of conference games only. With the exception of the rare Alabama-Southern Cal game and some traditional cross-conference rivals, such as Florida vs. Florida State, the primary victims are the cupcakes who send their players to slaughter in exchange for the payoff that finances their athletics programs.
The other yellow flag is no season. For now, we’ll leave that dreadful contingency aside.
As previously speculated, the SEC could stand firm with its eight-game conference schedule, cowering behind the explanation that things are tough enough already with eight games. We’re not sure how the ACC justifies its eight-game conference schedule, but the Big 10, Big 12, and Pac-12 all play nine.
But the SEC and other Power Five programs could move up, adding a game or two. A case can be made that if 10 games could be played, it would make for more income (and it is, after all, about the money) with each team having five home and five away games.
Regardless, it is not out of the question that scheduled games could be changed. Meanwhile, Alabama’s all-SEC schedule of eight games is:
Sept. 19 Georgia
Oct. 3 @ Ole Miss
Oct. 10 @ Arkansas
Oct. 17 Mississippi State
Oct. 24 @ Tennessee
Nov. 7 @ LSU
Nov. 21 Texas A&M
Nov. 28 Auburn
The SEC Championship Game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta is on the schedule for December 5.
With general angst regarding a football season, imagine the surprise at finding fan bases in the SEC concerned that Alabama would get a break from the SEC office if games are added. History is not on the side of that hypothesis. In a number of seasons there were questions about how the SEC managed to give so many Crimson Tide opponents the little gift of an open date before playing Bama.
That is not to say that Alabama shouldn’t be the favorite son. Other SEC schools should not only recognize it; they should like it. Well, okay, accept it. That doesn’t happen, but consider that Alabama’s 9-7 win over Penn in Philadelphia in 1922 is considered to be the game that put Southern football on the map. The Tide team received congratulatory telegrams from other athletics programs in the South.
When Alabama not only earned an invitation to the Rose Bowl at the end of the 1925 season, but also defeated prohibitive favorite Washington, 20-17, Bama had delivered a one-two punch for its fellow Southern teams.
Since then, the Tide keeps rolling.
Alabama has won 27 SEC championships. The next two best together, Georgia and Tennessee with 13 each, don’t have that many.
Bama is the only team to win an SEC title in every decade of the league’s existence – the 1930s (33-34-47), the 1940s (45), the 1950s (53), the 1960s (61-64-65-66), the 1970s (71--72-73-74-75-77-78-79), the 1980s (81-89), the 1990s (92-99), 2000-09 (09), and 2010-19 (12-14-16-18).
The Tide’s all-time SEC record of 426-170-20 for a winning percentage of 70.8 is well ahead of No. 2 Georgia at 351-213-16 (61.9 percent).
SEC teams have gone undefeated and untied in regular season play 35 times. Alabama has 15 of those.
Alabama’s all-time record of 916-331-43 ranks among the nation’s best in both number of wins and winning percentage. And, of course, Bama has gone to more bowl games (67) and won more (38) than any other team.
Just in the so-called poll era, where national championships were selected by either polls (beginning with the Associated Press in the 1930s) or playoff, Alabama has won 12, the rest of the SEC 13.
Bama’s records of 28 consecutive victories (1991-93 and 1978-80) and 27 straight wins against SEC opponents (1976-80) are both best in conference history.
All that said, Alabama has been very, very good for the SEC as a group, though a bit of a bully on an individual basis (the Tide has a winning record against every other SEC team). Still, no one at Bama expects anything special.
Except that somehow there is football in 2020.
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July 16, 2020 at 05:09PM
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Tide May Deserve More, But Wants Only Football - 247Sports
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