Being a sports fan is, fundamentally, about rooting for your team and rooting against your preferred villain. That could be your team’s main rival, or it could be the glamorous bandwagon squad that the great swelling masses have come to favor.

It is not rational. Nor are people. They are tribal.

But there are times when fans must band together in mutual appreciation. It happens when one team is so obviously transcendent that sports become less provincial and more aesthetic. Just as admiring Bach or Picasso is not the exclusive province of Germans or Spaniards, reveling in Alabama’s greatness should be something all college football fans can share.

Three of the four top teams — in both the Associated Press poll and the College Football Playoff rankings — lost on Saturday. Iowa beat Michigan on a last-second field goal, 14-13, and dropped the Wolverines (9-1) from second to fourth in the A.P. poll. Clemson (9-1) was upset at home by Pittsburgh, 43-42, and fell from third to fifth. The real paper tiger might turn out to be Washington (9-1), which cruised to a 9-0 start against a soft schedule before being dispatched by visiting Southern California, 26-13, and falling from fourth to seventh.