- A red-letter day has arrived, but hold the confetti. Don't hold your breath waiting for the Million Dollar Band to march down University Boulevard.

Alabama comes off of NCAA probation today. There will be no chorus of "Rammer Jammer."

"That's to be celebrated quietly," said Mike Ward, who left as Alabama's NCAA compliance director last fall to become a senior associate athletic director at Tennessee.

This was the third period of NCAA probation that Alabama has served since 1995. The latest sentence was for three years, beginning on June 11, 2009, because of violations of the textbook disbursement policy.

"We're not going to have a parade or anything, but everybody feels good about where we are as a department and the strides we've made in becoming a model NCAA citizen," said Jonathan Bowling, who succeeded Ward as Alabama's compliance director.

"We're always going to have issues, just like any school, but we try to do things the right way."

An internal investigation that began in 2007 revealed that athletes in 16 sports, including seven football players, arranged for free textbooks for their friends. As part of the 2009 sanctions, Alabama had to vacate 21 football victories from 2005-2007 in which any of the seven players participated. Alabama lost its appeal of the penalties. Five of those victories came in 2007, Nick Saban's first season as the Crimson Tide's head coach.

His reaction to the end of probation is telling.

"Well, I didn't even know it was about ready to end," Saban said last week. "We don't ever want to be on probation. We always want to do everything by the rules. That's been our goal and what we've tried to do since we've been here, and that's what we'll continue to do.

"Since I didn't know it was about to end, I don't really know what it means. I'll have to think about it first, I guess."

Alabama athletics director Mal Moore didn't have to be told this day was coming, and he has seen a negative become a positive.

"The time we have been on probation has strengthened our commitment to compliance," he said. "We've done everything in our power to make a difference there, and we will continue to try to be vigilant in every area."

Moore then gently issued a stern message.

"It's certainly important for our alumni and fans to understand that even though we are off probation, the importance of compliance is even stronger," he said. "We've got a great thing going, and we need to respect the rules and abide, and we will."

Free at last? Not yet

It also is important to understand that Alabama is not completely free at last. Standard with probation of any length is a five-year "repeat-offender" window.

"Any institution within that window, even if not on probation, has to continue the heightened attention to avoid a problem that could be deemed major during that time," said Greg Sankey, who was considered the Southeastern Conference's NCAA compliance czar before he was promoted in the spring to executive associate commissioner and chief operating officer.

Alabama knows this well, having paid recently for past sins. Its five-year windows virtually have overlapped since 1995.

On Feb. 1, 2002, the NCAA hit Alabama hard with five-year probation, among other sanctions, for multiple violations of football recruiting and extra-benefits rules. Even if that had been, say, a two-year probation - as the school received after appealing harsh sanctions in 1995 for extra-benefits and amateurism rules violations and a lack of institutional control - Alabama was deemed a repeat offender because textbook policy infractions began in 2005.

In its appeal of the 2009 ruling, Alabama argued unsuccessfully that its penalties were worse than those of other schools found guilty of similar violations involving textbooks.

The NCAA praised Alabama for its thorough internal investigation and yet stung the school in its report, calling it a "serial repeat offender," saying its infractions track record was "abysmal" and suggesting that its "appalling and unprecedented" recent infractions history was "unmatched by any other member institution in the NCAA."

"You never want to hear those words, but all you can do is move forward and change that perception," said Bowling, who worked part time in Alabama's compliance office for two years before becoming a full-time staff member in 2006.

"We all know that people are out there that target the SEC in general and see the SEC as the Wild, Wild West. It's not. We're trying to do things the right way. ... You just use that as motivation to show people that you're going to do things the right way, and you're not going to be back in that position."

If Alabama was handicapped by the probation, it was hard to tell. The Crimson Tide actually experienced unprecedented athletic success during the past three years, winning six national championships: two in football (2009 and 2011), two in gymnastics (2011 and 2012) and one each this year in women's golf and softball. Alabama never previously had won more than one national championship in a single academic year.

Unlike sanctions in 1995 and 2002, Alabama was not hit in 2009 with forward penalties such as bowl bans and crippling scholarship losses.

"Certainly the kind of cooperative, and positive and aggressive response was viewed in a favorable way," Sankey said. "That can be helpful in eliminating some penalties."

What does this mean?

The idea of NCAA probation is nebulous. It's a stain on a school's reputation, but what does it really mean? And what does it mean to come off of probation?

"It's tough to put into words," Ward said.

In response to its internal investigation, even before the NCAA ruling, Alabama revamped its system for issue textbooks, requiring compliance officials to be present when student-athletes picked up their books. Previously athletes were not required to show photo identification or restricted by purchase limits.

Being on probation means being a target of negative recruiting by rival schools, but that isn't as bad as the period when a school is under NCAA investigation.

"It's when the sword of Damocles is hanging over your head that a school can have that used against them," Bowling said.

Being on probation also means having to send annual reports to the NCAA that document "compliance efforts that are both specific to the issues that arose and more generally about how they're managing compliance issues on their campus and their athletics department," Sankey said.

Coming off probation means these annual reports no longer are necessary, and not much more.

"Probation gives you a heightened sense of awareness, and it makes everybody sit up and say, 'OK, we really need to be careful,'" Bowling said. "But from a compliance perspective, we're just doing what we think we should be doing anyway."

Alabama's compliance office has grown by 50 percent in recent years, to six full-time employees. Three of them have law degrees. Law students, students pursuing master's degrees in sports management and other curriculums work part time.

Education is the objective and practice of compliance staff members.

"Every coach, every secretary, every person who works in this department attends compliance rules meetings a couple times a year where they're brought up to date with changes," Moore said. "Our compliance people go to meetings like a Red Elephant Club in Mobile or Birmingham or Huntsville and update them on rule changes."

The SEC is pleased with Alabama's progress.

"They did a good job before, but during this period of time, they've taken the opportunity to strengthen what they've done," Sankey said. "That clearly is a positive outcome."

Bowling plans to continue the same compliance efforts that have been in place during probation.

"We still want to meet with the different groups on campus a couple times a year," he said. "We still want to go out and meet with our fans and boosters at various functions throughout the state and country. We're still going to have our meetings with our coaches. We're still going to make it a point of emphasis.

"Going off probation is great, but it only means something if you stay off of probation."

ALABAMA'S HISTORY OF MAJOR NCAA RULES INFRACTIONS

1964

Sport involved:

Violation:

Probation:

Penalty:

1995

Sport involved:

Violations:

Probation:

Among other penalties:

Five-year repeat offender window:

1999

Sport involved:

Violation:

Probation:

Penalty:

Five-year repeat offender window:

2002

Sport involved:

Violations:

Probation:

Among other penalties:

Five-year repeat offender window:

2009

Sports involved:

Violations:

Probation:

Among other penalties:

Five-year repeat offender window:

Source: NCAA