Bama dominance explained (sorry, long read)

I had the opportunity to meet Saban's accountant at a business function earlier this year, and got a little insight into why Alabama football has become such a dominant force.

The most important thing to understand is that, just like Saban's admonition to focus on the next play and ignore the scoreboard, success on the football field is just a by-product of the larger process he has in place. The real goal is the establishment and maintenance of a sustainable and perpetual economic engine. This engine is at the heart of everything they do, because the returns to the university are, in a word, enormous.

Of course, it starts with a control and detail obsessed football mastermind workaholic coach who eats, sleeps and breathes the game and every aspect of how to win it. The guy is a machine. Every possible detail is micromanaged, and the resources available to allow coach to implement his program are essentially unlimited.

Directly and indirectly, revenues generated are in the hundreds of millions and well beyond, not only in direct football-related income, but in tuition, research grants, endowments, state building projects, and private donations. The result has been the unprecedented growth of the UofA, as more and more money has become available for facilities and the best educators to staff them.

All of this effort creates a more highly educated workforce (I know, this is Alabama, so "highly educated" is a relative term) to feed the demand for people created by large manufacturing concerns, businesses of all types, and the Huntsville research park complex, which in a few years is poised to become the largest city in Alabama.

All of this public and private investment starts with the success on the football field that drives interest in the State of Alabama and its flagship university.

The formula for football success is pretty straightforward. The coach controls every aspect of the program. They can afford to hire the best available staff, and have the best facilities. They exploit the rules-making system to the maximum extent possible (i.e., let's look for things that there are no rules against, and let's bend existing rules as far as possible). With each successive championship, more and more 4 and 5-star players are recruited into the system, drawn by the promise of the exposure they will get to the NFL, the ability to play for a program with so many NFL connections, and the opportunity to play for arguably the best coach in the history of college football. And the women aren't bad looking, either.

Eventually, after multiple #1 recruiting classes, the team becomes 3-deep with the best 4 and 5 star players in the country, who benefit from the best possible coaching, facilities and support, resulting in a juggernaut on the field that more often than not, simply cannot be beaten due to the combination of coaching, preparation, game management and depth.

At this point, the operational model of the enterprise has become self-perpetuating, and its continued success is inevitable unless the management philosophy changes.

All this truly makes Alabama a different animal, and those who bemoan our inability to prevail on the football field really have no understanding of what we, and the rest of the college football world, are up against. Honestly, I think this "unfair advantage", as Penske Racing first defined the term, is unique right now in the world of sports at any level.

In all fairness, we come closer than most, and it's a testimony to our players that we are able to compete with Bama most years.

But make no mistake, their system is hitting on all cylinders, and the vision Nick Saban has had for decades about the ultimate college football program has been fully realized, and as long as he is at the helm, everyone else will be at a disadvantage.

The tragedy in all this of course is we had him for awhile, but since Louisiana government is always trying to do things on the cheap (and Nick had happy feet anyway) we couldn't hold onto him, and visionaries that we are, we didn't grasp the end game and what it represented. That he ended up at Alabama of all places raises the bitterness of his success to an entirely different level. If he were anywhere other than the SEC West, his success wouldn't necessarily mean our failure, but like it or not, any future success LSU will have is directly tied to our ability to beat the Alabama system, and while not impossible, it's an extremely tough proposition.

The good news is Nick won't be around forever. It remains to be seen if anyone else can duplicate his success, because he is the genius that designed the system and keeps it rolling, and if anyone else could do it, they would be doing it already. So there is hope.

Dominance at this level in sport is rare. The Yankees of Ruth, Gehrig and DiMaggio. The Bulls with Jordan. The Packers under Lombardi, the 49ers under Walsh, UCLA under Wooden, and Bear Bryant of course. These are all legendary programs led by great coaches. But since The Bear retired almost 40 years ago, no one in major college sport has achieved domination on this level.

Unfortunately, this is the hand we've been dealt, and I know we'll sure as hell keep trying to win. We have to exhibit resilience in the face of adversity (I'm sure I've heard that somewhere before...), and overcome the football team that at its core is the instrument of a colossal business enterprise.

So let's back our boys. Bring on Ar-kansas, Rice and A&M, and let's finish strong at 11-2 with a nice bowl.

Not a perfect season, but not bad either, and still going in the right direction.

Go Tigers..!!