If you’ve paid attention to college football in the past 10 years, chances are you’ve witnessed some of Alabama’s complete dominance under head coach Nick Saban.

Everyone knows about the four national championships and the five SEC championships (including three in a row) Alabama has won since Saban arrived in Tuscaloosa in 2007. And of course, there’s Saban’s 114-19 record at the school. That’s good enough for a .857 winning percentage.

But just how dominant has Alabama been against the SEC? Is the Crimson Tide further ahead than ever before? Is the gap widening? Is Saban bad for other coaches in the league? Those are just a few of the questions we hope to answer in this article.

Saban has only lost 12 regular season SEC games. Four came in 2007 against Georgia, LSU, Mississippi State and Auburn. Three more came in 2010 against LSU, South Carolina and Auburn. Since then, the Crimson Tide has lost just five SEC games — to LSU (2011), Texas A&M (2012), Auburn (2013) and Ole Miss (2014, 2015).

Let’s look at the margin of victory against the SEC (postseason excluded), which will be calculated while subtracting losses as follows:

2007: Vanderbilt +14, Arkansas +3, Georgia -3, Ole Miss +3, Tennessee +24, LSU -7, Mississippi State -5, Auburn -7. This means that Alabama, which was 4-4 against the SEC, defeated the teams by the positive margins and lost by the negative margins. Added together, the total score for 2007 is 22. Excluding the losses, the average margin in their victories was 11.

Now for the rest of the seasons, using the same formula:

  • 2008: 140 (17.5 average margin in wins), 8-0 vs. SEC
  • 2009: 123 (15.4 average margin in wins), 8-0 vs. SEC
  • 2010: 75 (18.6 average margin in wins), 5-3 vs. SEC
  • 2011: 204 (29.6 average margin in wins), 7-1 vs. SEC
  • 2012: 213 (31.1 average margin in wins), 7-1 vs. SEC
  • 2013: 188 (27.7 average margin in wins), 7-1 vs. SEC
  • 2014: 112 (16.9 average margin in wins), 7-1 vs. SEC
  • 2015: 113 (17 average margin in wins), 7-1 vs. SEC
  • 2016: 186 (23.3 average margin in wins), 8-0 vs. SEC

So, what do these numbers tell us?

First, Alabama peaked somewhere between 2011 and 2013 in terms of its domination over SEC competition. Even though the Tide went undefeated against the conference in 2008 and 2009, it only won by an average of 17.5 and 15.4 points per game. Compare that with victory margins between 2011 and 2013 and it’s clear that the latter, one-loss Alabama teams were more dominant in their victories.

Of course, one could argue it’s better to be undefeated, but maybe the losses helped Alabama finish the job in more games, as well.

The Tide won back-to-back national titles in 2011 and 2012, but the 2013 regular season ended with the “Kick Six” loss to Auburn. Alabama then proceeded to get handled by Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl and subsequently hired Lane Kiffin to coach the offense.

In the 2014 and 2015 seasons, the average margin of victory went down significantly, even though both of those teams made the College Football Playoff and the 2015 team won the national championship. Were those teams less dominant? Or is there another explanation as to why they had closer games?

Let’s dive a little deeper and examine Alabama’s SEC per game averages on offense and defense since 2008. At this point, it’s probably OK to exclude Saban’s first season in 2007 for purposes of comparison.

  • 2008 vs. SEC: scored 30.6, allowed 16.2
  • 2009 vs. SEC: scored 26.7, allowed 10.9
  • 2010 vs. SEC: scored 27.3, allowed 17.9
  • 2011 vs. SEC: scored 32.4, allowed 7.4
  • 2012 vs. SEC: scored 37.2, allowed 13.1
  • 2013 vs. SEC: scored 38.1, allowed 14.6
  • 2014 vs. SEC: scored 34.2, allowed 18.6
  • 2015 vs. SEC: scored 31.2, allowed 17.1
  • 2016 vs. SEC: scored 39.8, allowed 14.9

Alabama’s defenses in 2009 and 2011 clearly were the most suffocating against the SEC. However, the Tide had its highest-scoring offense last season, though it must be noted that the defense and special teams contributed to that point total. Should the rest be attributed to Kiffin’s coaching? Possibly, however, the 2014 and 2015 teams were pretty average offensively. They were better than the 2009 offense, but below average compared to the 2012 and 2013 teams.

So what can we conclude here?

Alabama’s 2016 team was about as dominant as its 2011 and 2012 teams. And that is an upward trend, because the 2015 team – even though it won a national championship – was probably the weakest of the four mentioned.

Last year, Alabama was better on offense and — when you factor in the 11 defensive touchdowns — significantly better on defense than it has been since at least 2013. The Crimson Tide teams with the highest separation vs. the SEC – by far – are the 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2016 teams. Those four are very similar statistically.

Of course, some other items should be considered, including the quality of coaches in the SEC over the past few seasons.

Many teams in the SEC West tried to bring in up-tempo offenses to combat Saban’s defensive dominance. Auburn brought in Gus Malzahn, Ole Miss brought in Hugh Freeze and Texas A&M brought in Kevin Sumlin.

Each school has at least one win against Alabama since 2012, however, none has consistently been able to surpass the Tide. Freeze was fired from Ole Miss, while Malzahn and Sumlin each can be found on SEC “hot seat” lists. Besides that, LSU made a coaching change just last season. And in fact, Mississippi State is the only SEC school besides Alabama that has avoided a coaching change in the past six seasons.

Is Saban the reason for all the shakeup? He’s absolutely been a factor. And taking into account the fact that each SEC school besides Alabama ended up with at least four losses last season, it’s safe to say there was a lot of mediocrity in the SEC.

Alabama won all of its SEC games by double digits except one, against Ole Miss. All of its SEC victories in 2015 also were by double digits, with the exception of the Tennessee game (and, of course, its loss to Ole Miss).

It remains to be seen whether the Crimson Tide’s 2016 dominance will carry over into this season, but Alabama at least appears to be near the highest level it has ever been against SEC competition.