Ranking Alabama’s National Championships in football
By John Buhler
1926
The 1926 Alabama Crimson Tide finished 9-0-1 under then head coach Wallace Wade. It was the second national title for the Alabama program and for Wade at Tuscaloosa. Their lone blemish was a 7-7 tie to the then Stanford Indians in the 1927 Rose Bowl.
Alabama went a perfect 9-0 during the regular season en route to a Southern Conference championship. The Tide were the only team in the 22-team Southern Conference to go undefeated in the regular season. That year Alabama never allowed more than seven points in a single game. The Tide shut out six teams, most often in crushing, blowout victories.
Their Southern Conference victories were over Vanderbilt, Mississippi A&M (now Mississippi State), Georgia Tech, Sewanee, LSU, Kentucky, Florida, and Georgia. All eight opponents would along with Alabama and a few others form the SEC in later years. Sewanee and Georgia Tech obviously left several years later.
Only Vanderbilt, Mississippi A&M, Georgia, and Stanford scored on Alabama that season. The Tide certainly built off their first national title the year before and became a football powerhouse in the years to come. The only negative about this team is that Alabama tied Stanford in the Rose Bowl. A victory over the Indians would have made this legitimate national championship even higher up on this list.
Next: 9. 2012