SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — With five national championships in the past nine seasons, Alabama already has accomplished something never done before in the AP poll era that began in 1936.
Winning another crown Monday night against Clemson would lift the Crimson Tide even further above other college football dynasties and into the conversation about the best runs in all of college sports.
Not that coach Nick Saban is worried about any of that.
"I'm always looking ahead. I think I'm always sort of focused on the next challenge," he said this week. "It's a lot like climbing a mountain; you push a rock up a mountain, but when next year starts, it's a new mountain, and you'd better be focused on that, and that's the way we try to approach it with the individuals in our organization as well as our players.