2. Alabama’s championship pedigree is hard to ignore
It’s hard to ignore Alabama sitting at the top of the college football world season after season. It’s harder still for impressionable recruits to ignore. It’s especially tough for recruits who live in the state of Alabama, where championship memorabilia litters storefronts and the backs of classmates and the little old ladies at church on tailgate Sundays.
The number 17 illuminates the state, and then goes out of style in just a year or two, once the next national championship is won. Alabama fans have closets full of national championship gear that is outdated almost as quickly as it is bought.
Nick Saban has led the Crimson Tide to five national championships in the last nine seasons, and the reigning champions are the favorites to capture the top prize for the second year in a row, and the sixth time in ten years.
The No. 1 ranked Tide ran through the regular season at a perfect 12-0, obliterating opponents at a historic level before a come-from-behind win over Georgia in the SEC Championship to clinch a spot in the College Football Playoff for the fifth season in a row.
Championships and accolades continue to be rolled up in Tuscaloosa with no real end in sight. Saban’s relentless recruiting and attention-to-detail makes sure of that.