PASADENA, Calif. -- The argument, if there even really was one, is over.
Any notion that the Southeastern Conference was not the best in college football ended Thursday night at the Rose Bowl, where top-ranked Alabama beat No. 2 Texas, 37-21, in the Bowl Championship Series title game.
The Crimson Tide gave the SEC its fourth consecutive BCS title, joining two-time champion Florida and LSU as teams that were at their best on college football's grandest stage.
Alabama knocked Texas quarterback Colt McCoy out of the game on the Longhorns' first offensive series, scored 24 points in the second quarter and withstood a Longhorns rally to win its first BCS title.
Alabama coach Nick Saban, who won the 2003 BCS title at LSU, delivered the championship that Crimson Tide fans and administrators had longed for when they hired him before the 2007 season.
Alabama finished with a 14-0 record, but not without a fight from the Big 12 Conference champion Longhorns (13-1), who nearly came back from a 24-6 halftime deficit behind freshman quarterback Garrett Gilbert.
Gilbert completed only one of 10 passes with two interceptions in the first half, but he got his bearings late in the third quarter and brought Texas back to within three points with two touchdown passes to All-America receiver Jordan Shipley and a two-point conversion pass.
Alabama's star-studded defense, however, proved too much.
Trailing 24-21 with just over three minutes left, Texas had a first down at its 17-yard line.
As Gilbert dropped back to pass, he was pounded by Alabama linebacker Eryk Anders, causing Gilbert to fumble. Linebacker Courtney Upshaw recovered the ball at the 3, setting up Mark Ingram's game-clinching 1-yard touchdown run.
Ingram, Alabama's first Heisman Trophy winner, scored two touchdowns and finished with 116 rushing yards in 22 carries. Trent Richardson ran for 109 yards and two touchdowns, including a 49-yard sprint to the end zone in the second quarter.
But it was Alabama's defense that made it possible.
A unit that ranked second nationally in scoring defense, total defense and rushing defense forced five turnovers, including two interceptions by All-America defensive back Javier Arenas.
Linebacker Rolando McClain, the Butkus Award winner, and nose guard Terrence Cody are also All-Americans, but Anders and another less-heralded Alabama defender made the biggest plays.
Sophomore end Marcell Dareus played a huge role as the Crimson Tide built its 24-6 halftime lead.
Dareus' hit on McCoy injured the senior's right shoulder.
Then, with Alabama leading 17-6 late in the first half, Dareus intercepted a shovel pass by Gilbert and returned it 28 yards for a touchdown that sent the Crimson Tide rolling into their locker room with even more momentum.
"That chance was about as safe as we got," Texas coach Mack Brown said. "It's a shovel pass. When you're not open, you just throw it into the ground."
Meantime, Alabama appeared to be on its way to upholding the Southeastern Conference's recent stranglehold on the BCS title.
Gilbert completed 15 of 40 passes for 186 yards and two touchdowns, but four of his passes were intercepted.
Gilbert was forced into action when Dareus sent McCoy to the sideline after McCoy kept the ball on a run.
"He's a great player and it sort of made them change their offense," Saban said.
Gilbert replaced McCoy, but the Crimson Tide stopped the Longhorns three times from the 2-yard line, forcing Texas to settle for Hunter Lawrence's 18-yard field goal.
Texas, wary of kicking the ball to Javier Arenas, pooched the ensuing kick-off to the 32-yard line, where Curtis Brown of the Longhorns fell on the untouched ball at the 30.
Alabama, however, once again stifled Texas and Lawrence came on for a 42-yard field goal that put Texas ahead, 6-0, with 8:04 left in the quarter.
Ingram finally got the ball consistently late in the quarter and helped set up quarterback Greg McElroy's 23-yard pass to Julio Jones, which set up Ingram's 2-yard touchdown run two plays into the second quarter.
The Crimson Tide extended its lead to 14-6 with just under eight minutes left in the half when Richardson took a handoff from McElroy, broke through the line and outsprinted the entire Longhorn defense to the end zone.
Fitzgerald's punt to the Texas two late in the half allowed Alabama's defense to once again assert its will, forcing Texas to punt and setting up the Crimson Tide's final scoring drive.
Arenas' return gave Alabama a first down at the Texas 29. Six plays later, Leigh Tiffin kicked a 26-yard field goal for a 17-6 lead.
NOTES: : Alabama's Dont'a Hightower, who opened the season as half of what might have been the nation's top linebacker duo, had been sidelined since tearing a ligament in his left knee in Game 4 against Arkansas. He wasn't surprised his teammates were able to make it to Pasadena without him.
"There was never a doubt in my mind that with me going down or with [backup defensive lineman] Damion Square going down, that we wouldn't be here," Hightower said. "This team doesn't work that way. It doesn't fall on just one player making all the plays. It's a team effort. I think they showed up a lot, showed up in the Florida game."
The Associated Press contributed to this article.