Hear me out. There are vast differences between Bama and UT. The State of Alabama is like the state of oklahoma. They only have two teams as far as residents are concerned. We have four with huge alumni bases and t-shirt fans. Thrown in the tiny base for TCU and Baylor to add a few fans. None of those four fan bases compare to Alabama. They remind me of Arkansas when they were in the SWC. Every barbara shop, beauty shop, restaurant, truck stop and all levels of state government in oklahoma, Arkansas or Alabama talk football endlessly.
We lost huge percentages of fan base with pro sports in Dallas and Houston. Texas is much more diversified. All that said aggy has spent more than todays PPP programs and has yet to perform at SEC levels or UT under Brown. I'm no expert on Alabama but I would think if you can walk and chew gum you get admitted to Bama whereas at UT there may be less radical support from today's students.