No one can deny who presently stands alone at the top of the college football world: our very own Crimson Tide.
Who can argue? We finished the regular season undefeated for the second year in a row, all while in the finest football conference in the land. We played the role of kryptonite in Atlanta, bringing Superman to tears, taking the I-20 ride back with SEC title hardware. Mark Ingram collected the finest award in the sport in New York. Then we made it a baker’s dozen, toppling Texas in Pasadena.
The Tide started its 2010 campaign in college football’s new showcase: Bryant-Denny Stadium. With over 101,000 seats, Bryant-Denny, when hosting its championship football team, easily provides one of the most awesome college football experiences in the nation.
Our football program is the envy of those around the country. Foes obsess about us at their practices, devoting sections of preparation every day just for their meeting with the mighty Crimson Tide. Visitors are overwhelmed entering our gridiron palace, as our national championship coaches seem to stare them down as they look at our seemingly endless archive of championship teams.
So, I guess I have made it clear. We have the finest team and the finest stadium right here in Tuscaloosa. But even after cataloging the glories of the Crimson Tide, there happens to be one category where the Saban Nation is not number one in the gridiron world. What could be possibly be missing in this Crimson paradise?
There really is not a true measure of how tough it is to play at a certain stadium for a visiting team. Several sports junkies take shots at rating college football’s “toughest” stadiums to play at. While so many factors and biases play into such a rating, it seems the top five to ten stadiums are found in every sorting of “toughest” to play at. As you can imagine, you can find Bryant-Denny Stadium in a few of these.
But the sprinkling of our stadium’s name in these rankings is just the problem. There is no doubt that Bryant-Denny stadium should be the toughest place to play in the nation, hands down.
Football talking heads still consider Neyland Stadium, where people sing rather compulsively about dating bear and cat hybrids, tougher to leave with victory than the ruler of the Tuscaloosa skyline. Surprisingly, some claim that Jordan-Hare Stadium is more hostile for visitors than its chief rival.
I have to be fair; it got pretty loud Saturday night when Auburn’s crackerjack offense finally pieced together enough gimmicks to post points on the home side of the scoreboard.
Even in the decline of the program in Baton Rouge, Tiger Stadium, possibly still riding of a 1987 seismic event, rates ahead of Bryant-Denny in difficulty of venue for opponents. Others considered ahead of Alabama are USC, Florida, Georgia and Ohio State.
It is in our hands to match the championship level of our team with a crowd that dominates the atmosphere for 60 minutes. We already do a very good job, so lets take it to another level. We have the manpower, and we definitely have much reason to cheer. We can make Bryant-Denny the loudest, toughest and most feared place to play in America.
Coach Saban made it clear during the weekly radio appearance before the Mississippi State game in 2008 that we shouldn’t care about who we are playing. We should make the stadium as tough and daunting as possible for the opposition.
So while you are taking the 10-minute West Commuter hike to your car in the sweltering September heat, look to your left at our modern-day coliseum and think of how you are going to do your part to make Bryant-Denny a living hell for opposing teams. Take that rage of fighting 3,100 of your peers for 1,500 parking spots to the student section on game day.
The Tide reigns in every other college football measure. We can take the top spot in the rankings of hostile college football environments. So in the words of our career undefeated quarterback: Let’s go be champions.
John Anselmo is a senior majoring in economics.
