TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Bill Battle is near the 30-yard line with his fellow alumni, gripping hands and flashing a lighthouse smile, reassuring one and all that all is right in the University of Alabama athletics department, which he runs. Near the edge of the field, Molly Brautigan and fellow sorority sisters laugh and plot their postgame festivities.
At midfield, with his back to the visiting Arkansas Razorbacks, a stone-faced Nick Saban — Alabama’s $7-million-a-year football coach — watches his team tick off its warm-up drills surrounded by a rising tide of crimson as the more than 101,000 faithful find their seats at Bryant-Denny Stadium.