SI Cover Tournament: Raising Alabama vs. Can Anyone Roll The Tide?

Help BamaCentral determine which Alabama Sports Illustrated cover is the best, and a Top 25 list

This isn't just a matchup of Nick Saban going against one of his trademark season-opening wins, but also of Alabama professors/teachers. 

When Sports Illustrated wanted a big-name presence for its first cover story on Nick Saban in 2007, it reached out to Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Bragg. 

For a story on how Alabama could be beat after it won back-to-back national championships, it gave the assignment to New York Times bestselling author Lars Anderson. 

They square off in the second-round of the Alabama SI Cover Tournament, in the Nick Saban Regional.  

Maybe there should be a parking spot at stake over this one. 

BamaCentral is holding a 48-field single-elimination tournament to determine the best Alabama Sports Illustrated cover.

Vote on Twitter (@BamaCentral) or Facebook (@AlabamaonSI). The voting goes 24 hours for each matchup and the result added to the original post on BamaCentral.

Second round

Nick Saban Regional

Game 20: Raising Alabama vs. Can Anyone Roll The Tide? 

Raising Alabama

Story headline: In the Nick of Time

Subhead: Fed up with mediocrity and losing to Auburn, the Alabama faithful welcome Nick Saban as a coach tough enough to bring back the glory of the Bear

Excerpt (by Rick Bragg): They say college football is religion in the Deep South, but it's not. Only religion is religion. Anyone who has seen an old man rise from his baptism, his soul all on fire, knows as much, though it is easy to see how people might get confused. But if football were a faith anywhere, it would be here on the Black Warrior River in Tuscaloosa, Ala. And now has come a great revival.

The stadium strained with expectation. The people who could not find a seat stood on the ramps or squatted in the aisles, as if it were Auburn down there, or Tennessee, and when the crowd roared, the sound really did roll like thunder across the sky. A few blocks away 73-year-old Ken Fowler climbed to his second-story terrace so he could hear it better and stood in the sunlight as that lovely roar fell all around him. He believes in the goodness and rightness of the Crimson Tide the way people who handle snakes believe in the power of God, but in his long lifetime of unconditional love, of Rose Bowl trains, Bobby Marlow up the middle and the Goal Line Stand, he never heard anything like this. His Alabama was playing before the largest football crowd in state history, and playing only itself. "We had 92,000," he said, "for a scrimmage."

It felt good. It felt like it used to feel.

Can Anyone Roll The Tide?

Story headline: How to Beat Bama

Subhead: The Crimson Tide [is] expertly coached, stacked with future NFL talent and confident of running the table, but opponents who are smart, willing and armed with the right personnel can take eight simple steps and make one giant leap past the bullies of the BCS. And the team that did just that in 2012 is up next.

Excerpt (by Lars Anderson): College football is a game of mercurial bounces, tip-of-the-finger deflections and freak injuries, and it requires good fortune as much as good fundamentals to navigate through a season undefeated. Just ask Kansas State, the reigning Big 12 champ, which lost 24-21 at home last Friday night to a big-hearted team from the backwaters of the Football Championship Subdivision, North Dakota State. The sport is riveting not just because Davids can beat Goliaths, but also because that one loss can crushed a title contender's hopes—even if that contender is littered with five-star recruits on its third string.

Which brings us to the question that hangs over the nation as the 2013 season gets under way: Can anyone take down No. 1 Alabama?

The Crimson Tide's opener last Saturday no doubt emboldened those who say yes.

Result

Raising Alabama d. Can Anyone Roll The Tide? 55.8-44.2 percent