Credit to the Alabama football program- you are officially overexposed. It’s the ultimate compliment that you can give anybody in America’s ludicrously obsessed with celebrity. When they’re sick of you, it truly means you’re on top of the world. Congratulations Alabama football fans, your team is so relevant that we’re losing interest.
You’ve now reached the pinnacle of “they hate us cuz they ain’t us.”
Nevertheless, I’m just not interested in the national title game on Monday night.
There are many reasons for this- it’s a rematch, an all Dixieland game, Clemson is not compelling to me, the shtick of Dabo Swinney quickly grew tiresome.
Mostly though it’s the dullness of Alabama football. Of all the national title games in recent memory, it was another Southern Fried national championship, LSU-Bama in 2012, which got the lowest ratings of all. People want South versus North, not South versus South.
National title games that re-fight the Civil War do well, and that’s great because the SEC and their fans seem to really enjoy the ideas of their own perceived exceptionalism, and “us and against the rest of the country mentality.
Alabama football has won four national titles in the past seven years (2015, 2012, 2011 and 2009) and this will likely be five in eight.
From 2006-2012, the SEC won it every single year. Throw in Auburn’s 2010 national championship, and you had a single state responsible for every national title over a four year span. It’s exactly like the four year span in the English Premier League (2010-2014) where you had two teams from the city of Manchester winning every league title.
The two guys who will be calling the big game Monday night, Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Fowler, did a media call today, and the very first questioner asked if this Alabama football dynasty is discouraging interest, because consumers find it boring, or is it compelling because the audience wants to see the Tide fall.
“Maybe the answer is both,” Fowler answered.
“I think anytime any team rules the top of a sport, or any individual for that matter, a certain percentage are going to get fatigued. On the other hand you get an opportunity to frame something that is among the most incredible stories in the history of the sport.
“On the one hand you’re describing an incredible reign, sustained achievement. On the other hand, there are many people, even within the SEC, that would like to see a fresh story, new people at the top.”
“I can just speak for myself. I love it,” said Herbstreit.
“I love when we have a program that raises the bar and that everybody is aiming for. We kind of mock it and tease it, Hey, we want ‘Bama kind of thing. Yet when I think you talk to the coaches and players in this sport, whether it’s in the SEC or around the country, they see that coach and they see that brand. That’s who they’re trying to bring down.”
“Whether the viewers at home get tired of Alabama, I guess it’s up to each individual. For me personally, I really enjoy it.”
Although I don’t agree with Herbstreit at all about his overall stance on the entertainment value of Alabama football, I completely agree with his idea of “to each his own.” I’ve expressed my opinion here, he expressed his there, the comment section below is a place where you can express yours.
To me, Lane Kiffin has been the only mildly compelling story line about the Crimson Tide these past couple of years.
Now he’s gone, so what’s left?
His abrupt and unexpected separation makes all those wild rumors we heard about him in the fall of 2015 seem a bit more believable today, but we’ll never actually know the true, real story.
Kiffin went on Mike and Mike on Tuesday, for a radio appearance that ESPN would not stop crowing about, but interview was painfully tedious and utterly worthless. All he did was evade the questions, and his answers were nothing but Coachey McCoachington Coachspeak and PR spin.
So now he’s boring too! Just about as boring as that LSU- Alabama football game in November, which was a totally yawn inducing, slog fest, rock fight.
I’m certainly not interested in Clemson, as I find nothing compelling about them at all, but man, ‘Bama is just BORING!
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication.
He also consistently appears on numerous radio and television talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram and Sound Cloud