Alabama football: Is the Nick Saban Dynasty officially over?

After falling to Texas 34-24 on Saturday night, the dominance of Alabama football is in question. Nick Saban just suffered his first double-digit home loss in his career. The coach who dealt it to him, Texas’ Steve Sarkisian, is his third former assistant to beat him.

With all of these trends colliding, the question after Saturday night is clear.

Is the Nick Saban Dynasty at Alabama over?

There are a couple of issues with that question. Primarily, the standard that Saban has set at Alabama football is so ludicrously high that it’s already been over for years.

The Saban dynasty was established when the Tide won three national titles in four years from 2009-2012. He then won two more in a three-year period from 2015-2017.

Since then, it’s just one in five years. From 2018-2022, Saban’s Alabama only won a national title in 2020.

The Crimson Tide has not been the singularly dominant program in the sport for several years now. Georgia has emerged and is now at a similar level, and LSU and Clemson had stretches of time where they were good enough to interrupt Alabama’s reign.

The prime of the Nick Saban dynasty is long gone.

However, is Alabama football still an elite program that can win a national title? Absolutely.

There’s another issue with questioning Saban’s greatness after a game like we just witnessed: it ignores the greatness of the players and coaches on the other sideline.

Saturday night, Quinn Ewers was electric.

Alabama football has offensive wrinkles to iron out, but the Texas defense played a stellar game, and Ewers announced himself as an elite quarterback.

Saban’s greatness wasn’t over when Auburn and Cam Newton beat Alabama in 2010. A great player just had a great night.

Saban’s greatness wasn’t over when Johnny Manziel beat Alabama in 2012. An all-time college quarterback with an elite group of weapons had a great night.

Saban’s greatness wasn’t over when LSU beat Alabama in 2019. You get the point.

So, is the Nick Saban dynasty at Alabama officially over? Yes and no. The Tide don’t own the sport by themselves, but make no mistake, this is a great program that could still reach the College Football Playoff and even win the thing.