Editor’s note: Joe Giglio is one of 60 AP voters.

Alabama’s 42-14 clinic at Notre Dame’s expense late Monday gave the Crimson Tide its ninth Associated Press national title, the most by any program.

The Tide’s title also was historic because it was its third within four years. The AP has crowned a national champion since 1936 and only one other program, Notre Dame, has won three titles over four years (1946, ’47 and ’49).

Yes, Nebraska fan, Tom Osborne won three titles over four years between 1994 and ’97, but the ’97 AP title (correctly) went to Michigan; Nebraska took the coaches’ crown,. Such are the politics of college football and the designation of its mythical national champion.

A four-team playoff will be here soon, for the 2014 season, but we have one more year of the Bowl Championship Series and then an even longer wait for an eight-team bracket.

There is absolutely no reason to think Alabama won’t be in the title game next January. The greatest trick Nick Saban has pulled in this repeat is losing a home SEC game but bouncing back to win the big game.

“Every game counts … ” right, ESPN? Except when Alabama loses.

The rest of the top 10 required a dart board, I settled on Stanford (3) over Oregon (4) and Georgia (5) over Florida (7), based on head-to-head results but jumped Texas A&M to No. 6, ahead of Florida, because of its regular-season win against the Tide.

Giglio: 919-829-8938 or twitter.com/jwgiglio