Just A Minute: ChampionshipU? Not Yet, But Alabama is Getting There

Alabama softball coach Patrick Murphy made an understatement when saying that the basketball programs had a "Heck of a week," when talking to reporters on Tuesday morning.

Actually, the Crimson Tide is having heck of a year.

Football winning the national championship will always be the pinnacle, but the rest of the athletic program is on an impressive run.

It includes:

• Men's basketball in the Sweet 16

• Women's basketball in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

• Gymnastics wining the SEC championship.

• Another national title for the wheelchair basketball team (although that's not under the athletic department umbrella) and an individual national title in cross country.

It's a great time to be a Crimson Tide fan, maybe the best time.

Alabama claims national titles in football in 1925, 1926, 1930, 1934, 1941, 1961, 1964, 1965, 1973, 1978, 1979, 1992, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017 and now in 2020.

The Sweet 16 appearances have been in 1976, 1982, 1985, 1986, 1990, 1991, 2004, 2021.

This has never happened during the same school year.

Plus we have a ways to go. Baseball is ranked. Softball is a top-five program, and the golf teams have had some success.

This isn't quite on par with the post-tornado years, when gymnastics, women's golf, men's golf and softball all won national titles in addition to the back-to-back by football.

But it's getting there. And while football can claim to be LinebackerU, RBU, Defensive Line U, Wide Receiver U, DBU, and even Long Snapper U, there's been some talk of a new moniker for the Crimson Tide as a while: ChampionshipU (or ConfettiU).

Everyone needs something to aim for, and that's becoming the expectation in Tuscaloosa.