Was this an unprecedented scheduling anomaly or was it a regular occurrence prior to 2010?
It was an unprecedented scheduling anomaly, and it will never be permitted to happen again. After that debacle, a new rule was passed saying that no team would have to face more than THREE opponents who had a bye week. There was a lot of hand-wringing at the time and Mal Moore sought some schedule relief......but nobody in the SEC wanted to help Alabama.
One issue of great interest to study is the Tennessee-Alabama game. It was traditionally (forever) played on "The Third Saturday in October." During the 1970s, Coach Bryant thumped Tennessee every single year from 1971 to 1981. It cost their head coach, Bill Battle (a former Tide player who is currently our AD), his job. We kept beating them and kept beating them. From 1971-1994, a period of 24 games, we had a 19-4-1 record against the Vols. The teams played consecutive weeks. The Vols got an off week in 1987, 1988, and 1989 and went 0-3.
Interesting stat: from October 15, 1988 to October 11, 1991, Tennessee had a record of 35-4-2, with two SEC championships. THREE of their four losses were.....to Alabama (the other was to #1 Notre Dame in 1990).
As I said, Alabama owned them for nearly 25 years non-stop. In 1995, Peyton Manning led the Vols to their first win over us in ten years and their first blowout win over us since 1970.
But then things REALLY began to change......see if you notice anything.....
1996 UT 20 Bama 13 (UT has bye week before the game)
1997 UT 38 Bama 21 (Bama has a bye week)
1998 UT 35 Bama 18 (UT has bye week)
1999 UT 21 Bama 7 (UT bye week while Bama slugs it out with good Ole Miss team)
2000 UT 20 Bama 10 (UT bye week, Bama vs Ole Miss)
2001 UT 35 Bama 24 (UT bye week, Bama vs Ole Miss)
2002 Bama 34 UT 14 (UT bye week, Bama vs Ole Miss)
2003 UT 51 Bama 43 (UT bye week, Bama vs Ole Miss)
2004 UT 17 Bama 13 (UT vs Ole Miss, Bama vs USM)
2005 Bama 6 UT 3 (UT bye week, Bama vs Ole Miss)
2006 UT 16 Bama 13 (UT bye week, Bama vs Ole Miss)
Vols go 9-2 in an 11-year span where they have ten bye weeks. While there were other reasons, we drew a game against a decent Ole Miss team most of those years. Ironically, the year Ole Miss was no good.....2004.....UT drew them.
Then Saban showed up.
2007 Bama 41 UT 17 (UT vs MSU, Bama vs Ole Miss)
Note that just as soon as: a) Saban shows up but with Shula's players; and b) UT ALSO has to play a game.....the Vols can't beat us.
2008 Alabama 29 UT 9 (UT vs MSU, Bama vs Ole Miss)
2009 Alabama 12 UT 10 (UT bye week, Bama vs South Carolina in a slugfest fight that came down to the end)
2010 Bama 41 Vols 10 (UT bye week, Bama vs Ole Miss)
2011 Bama 37 Vols 6 (UT vs LSU, Bama vs Ole Miss)
2012 Bama 44 Vols 13 (UT vs MSU, Bama vs Mizzou)
2013 Bama 45 Vols 10 (UT vs S Carolina, Bama vs Arky)
2014 Bama 34 Vols 20 (UT vs Ole Miss, Bama vs ATM)
2015 Bama 19 Vols 14 (UT bye week, Bama vs ATM)
2016 Bama 49 Vols 10 (UT vs ATM, Bama vs Arky)
ANYBODY NOTICE SOMETHING??????
When the Vols DON'T have an off week.....they either can't beat us or barely beat us OR they play it close. Give them AND us a game......well, look at the scores. Of course, there's more to it than that. They had us beat in coaching when it was Fulmer vs DuBose, and they're beat no matter who faces Saban. But the thing is that Saban blew out the Vols with Shula's players when it was even Steven.
Note that LSU began insisting on an off week in 2007.....right as their former coach arrived here.
Did it have a crippling impact on our chances of the national championship that year or where there other reasons for the teams failure to win the BCS that year?
That would have been a tall order anyway. It was an immensely talented team but they never fully jelled that year. If you go watch the Auburn game.....oh my goodness, heartburn. We could have had them down 42-0 at the half, but it was only 24-0 in the second quarter. Bad breaks happened, stupid mistakes, and the schedule didn't help. Right after we mauled Forida, ESPN began saying they'd never seen any team like this. S Carolina caught lightning in a bottle.
But go back and look at the Arkansas game, for example. We beat them on talent alone. But LSU and Auburn had equal talent to us or at least close enough that the failure to fully gel together, the off weeks, and the opposing team's talent added up to three losses.
I honestly don't think we would have won the national title even without the scheduling debacle. However, we might have been able to prevent Auburn from winning it.