My thoughts on Alabama football at 9-0 in 2005, in the midst of some of the harshest penalties ever levied against a football program

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Less than five years ago, aided by rival coaches and boosters, secret witnesses, jaded sports writers and an errant Alabama booster, the NCAA did its best to upend one of the most decorated college football programs in the history of the sport. Why? Alabama's southern rivals had always felt Alabama won by "bending" recruiting rules. What else could explain nearly a century of domination in the talent-rich south? No matter how well they did, Alabama remained the flagship of southern football. Alabama's northern rivals hated it that the "Heart of Dixie" had a football team that could stand toe to toe with its biggest media darlings: Notre Dame, Southern Cal, Ohio State, Michigan, etc.

Sometime around 2000, a perfect storm formed somewhere over Tennessee (probably Knoxville), with the NCAA and Tennessee coaches and boosters conspiring to take down Alabama football. Finally, the playing field would be leveled for the rest of the SEC (Tennessee) and the NCAA could punish the "arrogance" of a program that had ignored the rumors of rogue boosters for years.

After a couple of years of kangaroo court-like investigations and proceedings, Alabama received the second harshest set of penalties ever levied against a football program. With a case built almost entirely on the NCAA's violation of its own provisions against secret witnesses and the withholding of information about possible rules violations AS THEY HAPPEN, Alabama's program was presented with huge scholarship reductions. The NCAA would make an example out of Alabama (ironically, of how NOT to assist the NCAA...Alabama's administration was praised for it's cooperation in the investigation, but then penalized as if it hadn’t).

Tennessee's coach, and no doubt other rival coaches, began telling recruits that football in Alabama was all but dead. With scholarship reductions, a two-year bowl ban, five years of probation, and its fourth head coach in just three years, the claim wasn't too farfetched. From the viewpoint of Alabama’s southern rivals, Alabama was finally getting what it deserved. From the viewpoint of Alabama’s northern rivals, Alabama's storied tradition and history was tarnished, an outcome befitting a program from the Deep South (i.e. the backwards, ignorant, racist south).

So now, five years later, is Alabama football dead? As of Nov 11, 2005, ten weeks into the season that was to be most impacted by the penalties, Alabama happens to be one of only three unbeaten teams in the country. It has won games against two teams ranked in the top five and looks poised to be a conference championship contender for the foreseeable future. How can that be?

What Alabama’s rivals failed to consider when pronouncing Alabama football dead, was the heart its players always seem to have. Alabama players seem to understand the importance of their program's place in the psyche of the southern sports fan, and they play to honor and live up to that memory and the expectations it creates.

During the middle of the 20th century, when the south produced precious little to be proud of (i.e. a horrible civil rights record), Alabama's football team was amassing victories across the nation and on stages historically reserved for northern teams. Alabama football became something the south could take pride in. While the penalties hurt Alabama, they weren’t the deathblow they could have been because today’s players play with a heart that can only come from being a part of something they are so proud of, something so many Alabama natives have been proud of for decades.

I’m not going to argue Alabama’s football program has been blameless. With respect to boosters (especially the one associated with the penalties), the administration should have been more proactive. But the NCAA’s having to resort to withholding information and using secret witnesses to build a case against Alabama shows the program wasn’t completely corrupt.

I do believe there's something special about Alabama’s football program that has allowed it to be 9-0 at this point in history. It holds a special place in the history of a region and the pride its tradition promotes has allowed its players to trump the schemes of jealous rivals and self-righteous bureaucrats. Here's to Alabama football players! Roll Tide!

Click the picture below to see how Alabama's tradition compares to it's biggest rivals, Tennessee and Auburn:

(Photo from http://www.tidesports.com)