This is an opinion column.
______________________
Nick Saban didn’t make Alabama.
That statement will probably come as a shock to Texas fans new to the SEC, but just count the national championships. The Crimson Tide had more mystique and more trophies before Saban showed up in Tuscaloosa than the Longhorns have ever known.
SEC Media Days is here for a college football offseason of change. Let’s start it off with a history lesson.
If Texas wins the next three College Football Playoffs, then that would bring the Longhorns’ total number of national titles to 12. That’s how many national championships Alabama claimed before Saban ever even dreamed of resurrecting his career thanks to the power of Alabama.
Like a lens that channels a sunbeam into a fixed laser of light, Saban organized the power of Alabama and pointed it into the direction of championships. He lit a fire that burned down college football as we know it, but he didn’t create the heavens and the earth.
The sun is the sun, and Alabama is Alabama.
Most Popular Stories by Joseph Goodman
Some will predict Georgia to win the SEC this week and others will go with Texas but everything in the solar system that is the Southeastern Conference still revolves around the Crimson Tide.
I’m here in Dallas Monday through Thursday for the big show. The heavy hitters on Day 1 are LSU coach Brian Kelly and Lane Kiffin of Ole Miss. How’s this for perspective?
Kelly, a man originally from Boston, won more games at Notre Dame than any other coach in the long history of the Fighting Irish. He left all that behind to coach the team that Saban kicked to the curb for the NFL.
Saban is now the greatest coach of all time thanks to Alabama. He harnessed the power of the sun just like Paul Bryant did before him.
College football is changing this summer. Texas and Oklahoma are now in the SEC. Southern Cal, UCLA, Oregon and Washington are in the Big Ten. Clemson and Florida State are talking about leaving the ACC for the Big 12. The glaciers might burn, and the rocks might melt, but as long as they play college football in the SEC, then Alabama will be the center of it all.
Over the past several months, I’ve heard one reason after another why Alabama is going to fade away into nothing. It’s all beginning to sound like wishful dreaming.
If a coach can leave Seattle for the Deep South and put together a No.1 recruiting class in his first summer, then maybe — just maybe — Alabama is going to be OK.
Life without Saban begins now for college football, but here comes new Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer swagging into Dallas with one recruiting victory after another. If DeBoer can win 10 games in Year One with Alabama, then college football is in trouble all over again.
Over the past few months, I’ve been writing about some of the biggest questions in college football. No.7 on my list of 10 Burning Questions goes to Alabama. Everyone wants to write off the Crimson Tide without Saban, but what if Saban walked away at the perfect time?
10 BURNING QUESTIONS
Question 1: Will Isaiah Bond regret leaving Alabama for Texas?
Question 2: What does Nick Saban really think about Alabama?
Question 3: Where is the hottest seat in college football?
Question 4: Is Oklahoma ready for the SEC?
Question 5: Why is Horns Down so satisfying?
Question 6: Why are there no Black coaches in the SEC?
Georgia will be most everyone’s pick to win the SEC, but didn’t Saban just knock off the Bulldogs with a diminished version of the Tide?
College football is more corporate than ever and the SEC is bigger today than it was before. Does that mean it’s better? We’ll see come the fall. The league will welcome its new members this week, Dallas will introduce its pork-eating guests to this weird stuff called brisket and Paul Finebaum might even put on a cowboy hat.
But know this, Texas.
Understand this, Oklahoma.
Saban is gone, but it’s still Alabama and then everyone else in the SEC.
BE HEARD
Got a question for Joe? Want to get something off your chest? Send Joe an email about what’s on your mind for the mailbag. Let your voice be heard. Ask him anything.
Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of the book “We Want Bama: A Season of Hope and the Making of Nick Saban’s Ultimate Team.”