Alabama v. Texas A & M

Soon after the 1957 season, Texas A & M Coach Bear Bryant had a big decision to make.  In his four years at College Station, he had turned the Aggies into a powerhouse.  His 1956 team had gone 9-0-1 and finished number 5 in the country.  His 1957 team had been 8-0 and number 1 in the country before losing its last three games by a total of six points.  Bryant was enormously popular in College Station, and could have stayed there for the rest of his career.  But he was an alumnus of the University of Alabama, and Alabama's football program was in big trouble.  The 1957 team, coached by J.B. "Ears" Whitworth, had stumbled to a record of 2-7-1, and had been humiliated by Auburn 40-0 in the last game of the season.  Auburn had won the 1957 National Championship, and in Shug Jordan, the Tigers had a great coach who would likely keep them as a powerhouse for years to come.  Now Alabama had asked Bryant to leave Texas A & M and coach the Tide.

In retrospect, Bryant held the whole future of Southern college football in his big hands at that moment.  Had he remained at Texas A & M, the future of every major college football team in what were then the Southeastern and Southwest Conferences would be different than it turned out to be.  (Given that Bryant played a significant role in Georgia Tech's decision to leave the SEC, his decision had a big impact on the ACC as well.)  But as he explained to the folks at College Station, his mama had called him, and he was going home to straighten things out.  As a result, Alabama entered the 1960's with the best coach in the whole country.  The popularity of football boomed during the 1960's and 1970's, thanks in large part to television, and Bear turned Alabama into a national symbol of football excellence.  He also survived the political turmoil of those years, and became the only coach to win a football championship with both segregated teams and integrated teams.  (No one did this in basketball.)  The Tide have gone up and down since Bryant left, but the magic aura he left behind has never wholly faded, and has recently been burnished to a very high level by Nick Saban.

Meanwhile, Texas A & M was left behind to face the University of Texas (and the genius of Darryl Royal) without a Bear Bryant to save them, and they have never really caught their footing ever since.  A few years ago, they decided to join the SEC to get away from Texas, and now they again stand on the verge of National Powerhouse Status.  Here are the current SEC standings (conference games only):

EAST
(15) Florida:  3-1
(18) Tennessee:  2-2
Kentucky:  2-2
Georgia:  2-3
Vanderbilt:  1-3
S. Carolina:  1-4
Missouri:  0-3

WEST:
(1) Alabama:  4-0
(6) Texas A & M:  4-0
Auburn:  2-1
Louisiana St:  2-1
(17) Arkansas:  1-2
Mississippi:  1-2
Mississippi St:  1-2

Whichever team wins today will probably win the SEC West, and probably represent the SEC in the College Football playoff.

Alabama has an all-time record of 6-2 against the Aggies.  In 2012, the first season Texas A & M was in the SEC, a quarterback named Johnny Manziel led them to a stunning upset of the two-time defending national champions in Tuscaloosa, as the Aggies won 29-24.  The next year, in College Station, the Tide beat Manziel in a 49-42 shootout.  The last two years, Alabama has drilled A & M -- beating the Aggies 59-0 and 41-23.  But those Aggie teams weren't as good as this one.

Nevertheless, the oddsmakers were very impressed by Alabama's blowout win in Knoxville last week.  They have installed Alabama as an 18-point favorite in a game where 60 points are expected.  That would be a 39-21 win for the Tide, which would be very disappointing for an Aggie team looking to show that it belongs on a national stage.  But given how good the Tide has been this year, the oddsmakers may be right.