This is the ninth article reviewing the ten topics I deemed most important to the SEC before the season began.

The previous articles in this series can be found here:

• Storyline 10: The Return of Marcus Lattimore
• Storyline 9: Derek Dooley’s Hot Seat
• Storyline 8: Georgia’s Defense
• Storyline 7: Is Vanderbilt any good?
• Storyline 6: Picking on the New Kids – Texas A&M and Missouri
• Storyline 5: Divisional Powershift Courtesy of Auburn and Florida
• Storyline 4: The Decline of Arkansas and Mississippi State
• Storyline 3: The SEC’s Heisman Candidates

Talkin’ Tide

I can’t go anywhere without hearing about or talking about Alabama football.  This week I went down to West Palm Beach for a conference.  Alabama National Championship T-shirts were for sale at Hartsfield-Jackson and Palm Beach International airports.  Half the people who identified me as a Georgian asked me what I thought about the Falcons near-collapse against the Seahawks before moving on to the more pressing question, “OH! And how about that SEC Championship Game?!?! Georgia was so close!”

I might sound like I’m leading into a bitter tirade, but for once I’m not.  Alabama was the best team in the country this year.  I knew this in August (and frankly every one should have known this) when I pegged the team as the second most important stand-alone SEC topic (being edged out only by conference-wide predictions).  At the time I anticipated a year of hearing about Alabama football, so I refused to talk about Alabama football and instead focused my time discussing Nick Saban and his daughter’s alleged antics, A.J. McCarron’s disaster of a tattoo and a few other trivial observations about the Tide.  As it turns out, I didn’t hear enough about Bama this year.

Even back in August I found it odd that fans were more interested in the Honey Badger, Bobby Petrino’s side piece and Tyler Bray than the defending National Champions with a lot of returning talent.  Even through the season it seemed like Alabama got most of its press when the Tide lost to A&M but otherwise they kind of plodded along quietly.  Leading up to the National Championship the media was so busy polishing the golden dome on Manti Te’o’s head and picking flowers for his next lei that they failed to recognize that Alabama was not only a good team, but the best team.  And, as I exhausted here, many failed to realize that Alabama was about to end Notre Dame.  Period.

So, in a weird way, I can’t be too upset when Alabama is all I hear about now.  As good as this Bama team was (and to be fair, I’m not even sure it was the best of the current dynasty), I don’t think the Crimson Tide got enough talk-time before and during the 2012 season.  So in the name of fairness, I’ll withstand the long conversations about a team that outplayed my team by five yards.  Because the topic of conversation – at least for the last week and a half – has been the best team in the country, and that’s a welcomed change.

That’s all I got/

Andrew