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 leans over a rail with some fellow sorority sisters, laughing and plotting 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 genius — 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.