Why Is the University of Alabama So Powerful?
Tradition and Excellence from the University of Alabama
The University of Alabama has a number of successful sports teams, but nobody
contests that the Crimson Tide is its most popular and successful program. When Big
Al stomps out onto the football field amid several different traditions with decades of
history, the roar can be deafening. And the reason Bama engenders this kind of furor is
greater than just its historical excellence or the pile of enthusiastic traditions that anyone
at Alabama would find hard to resist; in recent years, the team has again been incredible,
though the Tide has only earned championship Alabama collectibles - rings - once since
the birth of the BCS. Every year, the Crimson Tide goes up against the rest of the SEC,
currently the most dominant league in college football history, and that kind of thrilling
fight is bound to create new generations of rabid fans.
In fact, all internet "flaming" aside, there is a general consensus that this fanaticism
has bred some of the rudest college football fans in the country. But a lot of this vitriol
must come from the sheer weight of the SEC's excellence. The SEC holds six national
conference titles from the past thirteen years, and every conference title for the past five.
That is literally unprecedented. And these six titles were won by five different teams,
with only the University of Florida having won twice. That speaks to the immense depth
and talent in the SEC, which hammers out tenacious teams every year, and adds weight to
rivalries that have burned hot for decades. Maybe this brutal gauntlet explains why three
of these five consecutive BCS championships were beatings that left the loser looking
like they didn't deserve to be there.
The combination of a rich, deep history that comes with generations of allegiance, a
number of traditions related to athletic excellence and several identifiable practices, and
this recent dominance by the SEC teams all explain why Bama fans continue to be some
of the most loyal, diehard, and sometimes hated in the country. When they're asked to
chant "Roll Tide, Roll," they bring the roof down.