Talk of the Tide: 2020-2021 a Banner Year for Alabama Athletics All Around

One would be hard pressed to find any other athletic department in the country with as much success as the Crimson Tide over the last academic year

Before Alabama softball begins its NCAA-tournament run in the regionals against Alabama State on Friday evening, Crimson Tide fans need to soak it all in. 

Last weekend inside Rhoads Stadium, Alabama went on a magical three-day tear beating the likes of Kentucky, Tennessee and Florida — all top-16 seeds in the NCAA tournament — to capture a league-record sixth SEC tournament crown on the shoulders on SEC Co-Pitcher of the Year Montana Fouts and SEC Player of the Year Bailey Hemphill. 

Softball, women's golf, track and field and baseball are the last sports in the 2020-2021 academic year and what a ride the last 10 months have been for anyone affiliated with the school. 

Unsurprisingly, Coach Nick Saban and the football program led the way in a season filled with the ups and downs of a pandemic, going undefeated with an All-SEC schedule then blowing out Notre Dame and Ohio State to win the 2020 College Football Playoff National Championship. 

Men's basketball had its best season in over three decades, capturing the SEC regular season and tournament championships on its way to appear in the school's first Sweet 16 since 2004. 

There is still palpable buzz that Nate Oats and company aren't going anyway any time soon after reeling in another top-10 recruiting class and the nation's top point guard prospect in JD Davison. 

Gymnastics held its own by winning the SEC in dramatic fashion over Florida by .100 and later advanced all the way to the NCAA Championships. It was the first conference title in six years for the Crimson Tide. 

And then there's women's golf, which will compete for a national championship in Scottsdale, Ari. later next week.

Women's basketball reached and won a game in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1999. If baseball can make some noise against Mississippi State this weekend at home and in Hoover for the SEC tournament next week, it could lock up a spot in an NCAA Regional for the first time since 2014.

Alabama also took home too many individual honors to count including the SEC Player of the Year awards in football (DeVonta Smith), men's basketball (Herb Jones), gymnastics (Luisa Blanco) and the aforementioned softball duo of Fouts and Hemphill. 

Even in the professional ranks, Alabama has been well-recognized. 

Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry was the 2020 Offensive Player of the Year, Alabama's 2021 NFL draft class tied the record for most first-round picks in a single year and Detroit Tigers pitcher Spencer Turnbull became the first former Crimson Tide standout to throw a no-hitter in the majors. 

Regardless, one would be hard pressed to find one athletic department in the country that has had more success than Alabama, as a whole, over the last academic year.

The only period that rivals this current success for the Crimson Tide is after the April 27th tornado, which just reached its 10-year anniversary, when football, softball, men's and women's golf all won national championships in the months and year to follow. 

No matter what happens with the remaining spring sports, this academic year will forever be looked at as one of the more unique success stories in one of the most trying times in our nation's history.