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The initial display of spontaneous celebration came a minute and seven seconds from the end of a national championship game that had felt decided for days. A punt sailed through the end zone and a sophomore safety and special teams player named Vinnie Sunseri, No. 3 in your Alabama program, triumphantly waved his arms at that end of Sun Life Stadium.

His father, Sal, who used to coach the linebackers for Nick Saban in Tuscaloosa before moving on to Florida State, was somewhere in that sea of crimson, along with his brother, Tino, a senior quarterback this season at Pittsburgh.

The Alabama fans in the front rows were tempting Sunseri with a wall of dummy Birmingham News front pages that boldly screamed, "Bama Again!"

"Got caught up in the moment," he would say after the formality of the trophy presentation, confetti in the South Florida air, the new Alabama dynasty rolling on with a 42-14 rout of Notre Dame for its third title in four years.

"For me, this keeps getting more amazing," Sunseri said. "I played high school football in Tuscaloosa. Been in the program two years and we do this both times. You almost start to feel like this is the way it's supposed to be."

Football in the South and national championships rung up by Alabama and the other goliaths of the Southeastern Conference, seven in a row and counting — is that how it's now supposed to be?

In the days leading up to an overhyped game that was drained of suspense by the end of a quarter, Notre Dame Coach Brian Kelly talked about cycles, how they invariably must end, hopefully sooner than later. But his Irish were manhandled on Monday night by Alabama's massive offensive line, which should have had the theme from "Jaws" cued up as it approached the line of scrimmage.

Notre Dame was deflated by the power running of Eddie Lacy and destroyed by the passing of A J McCarron, two for two in national titles as the starting quarterback of the Tide.

"He's pretty laid-back about it all, always talks about the team, but I know that when he closes his eyes at night he's got to be thinking about all the greats — Namath, Stabler — and where he ranks," said McCarron's father, Tony, a firefighter in Mobile.

He was leaning over from the front wall in that area behind the end zone, having just cheered his son, who had carried the crystal, football-shape trophy, tucking it firmly under his arm so as not to fumble it.

No worries there. For Saban's team, from its electric 82-yard, 5-play opening drive, it was that kind of mistake-free and statement-making night.

"This is history being made and A J's an Alabama kid who's been playing football almost his whole life," Tony McCarron said. "People want to jump on the SEC bandwagon, talk about all the talent, but these kids work at it. It's their dream."

If Notre Dame is a national brand — Kelly's roster has players from 27 states, coast to coast, unfortunately none from Alabama — then the Tide is a study in homegrown success, in regional scope. Roughly half its roster is from in-state. Over all, it is overwhelmingly from the Deep South.

Florida and Texas are generally considered to be the most alluring of football mining states, but Kirby Smart would tell you that Saban has tapped into something equally rich, the soul of Dixie.

"Small world over there," said Smart, Alabama's defensive coordinator. "We bring these kids as freshmen and if they don't know each other, they know someone's family or somebody who knows them."

He could best illustrate the point by recalling a recruiting trip three years ago to the small town of Millbrook in central Alabama, about 15 minutes from Holtville, where he lived when he was young, the son of the local high school coach. He called his father, Sonny, who had moved on to work and live in Georgia, to say he was back in Elmore County, trying to sign a touted defensive back named Dee Milliner.

"He says, 'I coached that boy's daddy,' " Smart said. "He told me all about the father, how he was in the senior play, what he was like."

At the Milliner's home, the father, John, instantly remembered Kirby Smart as the former Holtville ball boy.

"He had a comfort level with me and that kind of jump-started the whole thing," Smart said.

The Alabama sales pitch is becoming much easier to make, the program and Saban's self-titled "Process" rolling along on new dynastic terms, looking over its shoulder mainly at conference rivals.

"I think the success speaks to the high school development process all over the South — Alabama, Georgia, Texas," Smart said. "The SEC is so much a part of that culture. Kids play spring ball in high school, which after four years is like a fifth season. Our communities put more money into high school coaches."

Smart turned his palms up, a gesture that said, it is what it is, and added: "You get what you pay for. You get better coaches, you get better players."

In other parts of the country, this may sound too important, too costly, too obsessive to the point of misguided. But that is another discussion, and, however worthy, not the prevailing debate on Monday night in the wake of Alabama's historic achievement in its own homespun way.

Outside the stadium, where victory cries of "Roll Tide" echoed in the night, a northern-sounding person asked one impassioned Bama fan, "Is that a verb or a noun?"

"Actually," the fan drawled, "it's a way of life."