When both the Amway Coaches' and AP polls put Alabama at No. 1 in their preseason rankings, I went searching for perspective.

We already knew that made nine straight years the Crimson Tide has reached the top of the polls, or every year since 2008, a streak unprecedented in college football history since the AP started ranking college football teams in 1936.

I went to the 2016 SEC Football Media Guide, ran the numbers and found some even more amazing context.

Alabama has been No. 1 in more seasons under Saban than any other SEC program has been No. 1 in its entire history.

Using the granddaddy of them all, the AP poll, Florida has reached No. 1 in eight seasons: 1985, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2006, 2008 and 2009. Auburn (1957, 1958, 1985, 2010), LSU (1958, 1959, 2007, 2011) and Tennessee (1939, 1951, 1956, 1998) have gotten there in four seasons each.

Georgia (1942, 1980, 1982) has reached No. 1 in three seasons, Ole Miss in two (1960, 1961) and Mississippi State in 2014.

Alabama is 9 for the last 9.

One reader asked me to dig deeper to compare this run to Alabama's memorable past. So I did. Try this: Before Saban arrived in Tuscaloosa, Alabama had reached No. 1 in the AP poll - in its entire history - in nine different seasons.

Can you say wow?

Bear Bryant coached the Tide to No. 1 in the AP poll in eight seasons: 1961, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1973, 1978, 1979 and 1980. Gene Stallings did it once in the final poll of the 1992 season after thumping Miami in the Sugar Bowl to win the national title.

That's it. That means, in the 71 years of the poll era before Saban arrived, Alabama reached No. 1 in nine different seasons. Saban, in an age of parity and scholarship limitations, is 9 for 10 with the last nine in a row.

Process that.