Alabama will enter the regular season as the defending national champions for the sixth time under coach Nick Saban, an achievement made even more remarkable by comparing to the number of seasons the Crimson Tide have entered as anything else: Without including his debut year, in 2007, the Tide have not been the defending champions only three times under Saban, in 2008, 2014 and 2019.
The 2009 team won the first of three titles in four years, etching Alabama with Notre Dame (1946-47, 1949) and Nebraska (1994-95, 1997) as the only programs to do so during the modern era.