Alabama Crimson Tide football

The Alabama Crimson Tide football program represents the University of Alabama (variously Alabama, UA, or Bama) in American football. It is part of the wider Crimson Tide athletics program and competes in the Southeastern Conference (SEC), a conference of the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS).

The Crimson Tide are among the most storied and decorated football programs in NCAA history. It claims 18 national championships, including 13 wire-service (AP or Coaches') national titles in the poll-era and five titles from before the poll-era. From 1958 to 1982, Hall of Fame coach Paul "Bear" Bryant led the program to six national titles. Head coach Nick Saban oversaw another golden era between 2007 and 2023, winning six further national titles. It was not until 2009, however, that running back Mark Ingram II became the first Alabama player to receive a Heisman Trophy. In 2015, Derrick Henry became the university's second Heisman winner. The program achieved two further Heisman Trophies in 2020 and 2021; these were awarded to DeVonta Smith and Bryce Young, respectively.

Alabama has 985 official victories in NCAA Division I (an additional 21 victories were vacated, and eight victories and one tie were forfeited). Alabama has won 34 conference championships (4 Southern Conference and 30 SEC championships), and has made an NCAA-record 79 postseason bowl appearances. The program has 43 seasons with ten wins or more (plus one vacated) and has 46 bowl victories, both NCAA records. Alabama holds the NCAA record for most consecutive ten win seasons at sixteen from 2008 to 2023. The Crimson Tide lead the SEC West Division with 18 division titles and 16 appearances in the SEC Championship Game. The Associated Press (AP) ranks Alabama fourth in all-time final AP Poll appearances, with 62 through the 2024 season.

Alabama plays home games on Saban Field at Bryant–Denny Stadium, located on UA's campus in Tuscaloosa. Its capacity of 100,077 makes it the tenth largest non-racing stadium in the world and the eighth largest stadium in the United States. The team's rallying cry is "Roll Tide!". Its official fight song is "Yea Alabama", although "Dixieland Delight" is widely sung as an unofficial anthem. The Crimson Tide's fiercest rivalry is with the Alabama-based Auburn Tigers, against whom it contests the Iron Bowl.

History

Head coaching history

Alabama has had 28 head coaches since organized football began in 1892. Adopting the nickname "Crimson Tide" after the 1907 season, 12 coaches have led the Crimson Tide in postseason bowl games: Wallace Wade, Frank Thomas, Harold D. "Red" Drew, Bear Bryant, Ray Perkins, Bill Curry, Gene Stallings, Mike DuBose, Dennis Franchione, Mike Shula, Joe Kines, and Nick Saban. Eight of those coaches also won conference championships: Wade, Thomas, Drew, Bryant, Curry, Stallings, DuBose, and Saban. During their tenures, Wade, Thomas, Bryant, Stallings, and Saban all won national championships with the Crimson Tide.

Of the 27 different head coaches who have led the Crimson Tide, Wade, Thomas, Bryant, and Stallings have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. The current head coach is Kalen DeBoer, who took over the position in 2024 following the retirement of long-time head coach Nick Saban following the 2023 season.

National championships

National championships in NCAA FBS college football are debated as the NCAA does not officially award the championship. Despite not naming an official National Champion, the NCAA provides lists of championships awarded by "major selectors." According to the official NCAA 2009 Division I Football Records Book, "During the last 138 years, there have been more than 30 selectors of national champions using polls, historical research and mathematical rating systems. Beginning in 1936, the Associated Press began the best-known and most widely circulated poll of sportswriters and broadcasters. Before 1936, national champions were determined by historical research and retroactive ratings and polls. [...] The criteria for being included in this historical list of poll selectors is that the poll be national in scope, either through distribution in newspaper, television, radio and/or computer online."

Since World War II, Alabama claims only national championships awarded by the final AP Poll or the final Coaches' Poll. This policy is consistent with other FBS football programs with numerous national title claims, including Notre Dame, USC, and Oklahoma, except that in the pre-1936 era, unlike Alabama, there are major selectors' titles that these schools do not claim. All national championships claimed by the University of Alabama were published in nationally syndicated newspapers and magazines, and each of the national championship selectors, and are cited in the Official 2010 NCAA FBS Record Book. In addition to the championships claimed by the university, the NCAA has listed Alabama as receiving a championship for the 1945, 1966, 1975, and 1977 college football seasons.

In Alabama's 1982 media guide, the last for Coach Bryant, 1934 is listed as the only national championship before Coach Bryant in a footnote about the school's SEC history. In the 1980s, Alabama's Sports Information Director Wayne Atcheson started recognizing five pre-Bryant national championship teams (1925, 1926, 1930, 1934, 1941) by adding them to the university's Football Media Guide. According to Atcheson, he made the effort in the context of disputed titles being claimed by other schools, and "to make Alabama football look the best it could look" to compete with the other claimants. Atcheson maintains that the titles are the school's rightful claims. Four of the five championships claimed in the Media Guide come before the AP poll was introduced in 1936. Many schools claim national championships from pre-1936 because there was no contemporary or nationally recognized authoritative source before that year.

The University of Alabama 2009 Official Football Media Guide says Alabama had 12 national championships prior to winning the 2010 BCS National Championship Game. The 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017, and 2020 titles bring the total number of national championships claimed by Alabama to 18. Thirteen of Alabama's national championships were awarded by the wire-services (AP, Coaches' Poll) or by winning the BCS National Championship Game.

In January 2013, CNN suggested that Alabama might be college football's new dynasty, and in May 2013, Athlon Sports ranked Alabama's ongoing dynasty as the fourth-best since 1934, behind Oklahoma (1948–58), Miami (1986–92), and Nebraska (1993–97).