“The Bad Years” of Alabama football were an unmitigated, ulcer-inducing disaster that lasted a quarter century, and furthermore – this is important – produced results BETTER THAN MOST COLLEGE FOOTBALL TEAMS’ ALL TIME RECORDS.
Alabama football was dead, buried, irrelevant, and lost. They only won the national championship ONCE, I tell you, ONE SOLITARY TIME. And three SEC championships. And nine 10-win seasons (nine!) and 7 top-ten AP finishes and eighteen bowl games and eleven bowl wins.
All Stallings you say. Nope sorry. EVERY SINGLE COACH contributed at least one 10-win season. ALL BUT ONE COACH (Franchione) contributed a top-ten finish.
O Purveyor of Truth, you might say, this does not fit with my narrative.
Proof then that a majority of schools would kill for Alabama’s stats during the 25-season long Bama Sucks Era (BSE):
- Eighteen bowl game appearances is better than all but 30 schools, ALL TIME
- In all of FBS college football, only 43 teams lay claim to national championships ALL TIME. (BSE Bama has one: a 13-0 season, culminating in a 1 vs 2 matchup won by the Tide securing them a unanimous number-1 ranking)
- Nine seasons with 10 wins puts BSE Bama 30th overall for 10 win seasons. Slightly behind regular Bama, of course.
- How about the AP Poll? Do an “All Time AP poll” in which AP No.1 gets 25 points and AP No.25 gets 1 point. It’s just math, don’t be afraid. Fine I’ll do it. BSE Bama ALL BY ITSELF, compared to ALL OTHER TEAMS, ALL TIME, would rank 45th.
- 45th! Frankly astounding when you think about it. The 25 seasons of BSE Bama accumulated enough points to outrank 90 or more teams, many of whom had nearly 90 seasons to work with.
- Need I go on? Stats online are hard to find, tricky to navigate, and tough to know whether they have been cherry-picked by some partisan trying to make a point.
- That reminds me, did I mention these are “on-the-field” numbers?
I’m gonna return to that AP Poll stat for a minute. That’s final poll only, so we aren’t gifting anyone points based on reputation—only results. Let’s do an exercise that may explain why this whole BSE Bama topic even comes up: Subtract BSE Bama’s numbers from the Alabama football all-time number. Alabama, ALL TIME, excluding the Bama Sucks Era, ONLY DROPS from overall 2nd to overall 5th. I hate to keep repeating things, but I will: Take away the worst era in Alabama football, and Alabama barely notices. Meanwhile, on its own, that really bad, everything sucks era – a mere 25 seasons — is still a mid-tier team!
O Dropper of Truth Bombs, you might be saying, I am gobsmacked. I don’t know what to think.
I’ll gladly tell you what to think, that’s what I’m here for. Next time an Alabama fan decries the bad years, the walk in the wilderness years, the crying and wailing and gnashing of teeth years, don’t buy it! They are gaslighting you! Most teams would donate their mascot’s right….umm, right to wear pants in exchange for those years. Alabama fans are an insufferable, arrogant bunch and we 100% deserve to be. Roll Tide.
