With Alabama's almost meteoric rise back to the elite of college football, of which it was so very much a part, even before Bear Bryant; can the Tide win the SEC Championship for the first time since 1999?  And should this happen, will they win the National Championship?

If so, and with only nine graduating seniors, is a three-peat possible?  But in all due respect to Auburn’s unexpected tough year, will the Tigers refuse to let their winning streak with Alabama be broken?  It's difficult to see how the latter will happen, but when playing what many consider the deepest rivalry in college football, as both universities know, totally unexpected upsets in this rivalry will never stop happening. 

Assuming the Gators handle the Seminoles, and the Tide beats the Tigers, short of a blowout in either game, the Tide will probably still be No. 1 in the BCS rankings, with the Gators most likely favored in the SEC Championship Game. 

Since losing Bryant, there have been a few promising times in which it appeared Bama had made it back, yet the Tide was seldom able to hold onto any sustained winning seasons.  But Alabama's long stretch of so seldom being part of the elite, appears to be over.  

The best winning percentage during these rough years was in the 80's, under the coaching of the very honorable Bill Curry.  He had played for and was the coach at Georgia Tech, before accepting the offer to coach the Tide. But far too many bitter feelings were still being held against his relationship with "The Rambling Wreck", a rivalry that was as intense as Alabama’s rivalry has always been with Tennessee, before Tech left the SEC. 

Beyond this, what was most disliked about Curry was his inability to come up with a team that could beat Auburn.  His third and last year at Alabama was Alabama’s first time of going to Auburn, instead of playing the Iron Bowl in Birmingham every year. With the Tigers beating an undefeated Tide team, that was contending for a national championship, this resulted in Curry officially resigning shortly after the Tide’s loss to Miami in the Sugar Bowl.   

Bama’s storied tradition began in the 1926 Rose Bowl in which they beat Washington 20-19, earning the Tide its first of their twelve national championships.  Even though Washington had played no active part in the Civil War, with the South still reeling from having lost the war, followed by ten years of reconstruction, this was “their” first victory, since the Civil War was over. 

Southerners were finally able to claim a victory over the "Yankees."  On the train ride back, the Tide was repeatedly greeted by large crowds, beginning from Texas, down to New Orleans and all the way up to Tuscaloosa.  Their first full day back was more or less a city holiday, in which there was a big parade with celebratory festivities lasting the rest of the day.  The words "Remember the Rose Bowl, we'll win then", in "Yea Alabama", the now well known victory march for the Tide, came as a result of Alabama’s first Rose Bowl victory.

After WWII was over, with blacks slowly being accepted as players in college football, the Southeastern Conference, and especially Alabama, held deep resentment about the Big Ten and Pac 10 always being considered better than the SEC.  As Alabama saw it, their 34-14 victory over USC in 1946, their sixth Rose Bowl appearance, against the only college in the nation that had appeared in the Rose Bowl more than the Tide had, was what closed that bowl game, out of West Coast concern of being beaten again by the Tide. 

That resentment deepened when Alabama’s 1953 Orange Bowl 61-6 victory over Syracuse, for what Alabama considered the same reason, closed that one to them also.  But in 1954, the Homecoming loss to Mississippi State was the beginning of two years in which the best of these two years was only two ties, until the Tide beat Mississippi State for the 1956 Homecoming.  Then the "Bear came home to mother", taking the Tide to the inaugural Liberty Bowl in Philadelphia in 1959.  That was followed with his guiding Alabama to the 1961 National Championship, the Tide's first since the 40's.  During the Bear's tenure, the Tide reached the highest level Alabama had ever experienced.  Starting with 1959 Liberty Bowl, at the end of every season, each was always followed by a bowl game appearance.         

Nick Saban keeps saying this is not me, it’s the team.  This reminds me so much of Carleton K. Butler, the director of Alabama’s Million Dollar Band from 1935 to 1969, when anyone who ever saw the band during this time considered it the “Golden Age” of the Million Dollar Band. 

Like Saban, Butler never accepted seeing anyone not working on reaching their absolute best by the end of each season.  With the band always prepared to form whatever the half-time score may be, with Penn State scoring just before the half in the 1959 Liberty Bowl, more than one newspaper in Philadelphia stated that the game "Had to be fixed", because of the Million Dollar Band "Already knowing what score to form" in its haltime show.   “Perfectionist” and “Resilience” could have easily been the middle names for both, and both with the ability of dishing out the kind of “Tough Love Inspiration” that always brings back deep respect and love.  Even if the Tide loses their last two games, Tide supporters will consider this season a job well done, eagerly waiting for the 2009 season to start. 

Perhaps it’s only a coincidence that both Saban and Butler graduated from Kent State.  Or is it possible that Saban has brought another Kent State “charm” with him, in which he, if not surpassing Bryant’s winning percentage, will come very close to bringing the Tide back to a new “Golden Age” for the University of Alabama? 

While Saban will keep saying “This is not for me”, this is in much the same way that Colonel Butler, a native of Ohio, looked at the band.  While Saban's detractors say this is just one more stop to whatever the next school may be, in the same way Colonel Butler was infected with Bama's deep spirit, those who truly know Saban have little doubt that he will ever look elsewhere.  Just like Colonel Butler, looks like Saban has found a home.