For the second time in the past three years, the University of Alabama has won a national championship in college football. These sorts of things don’t happen in a vacuum. In fact, the university’s success can arguably be boiled down to just a few points that we can all use in our daily lives.

• Be willing to devote the resources needed to be a success — Alabama’s coach Nick Saban is one of the highest-paid in college football, and the school’s football stadium is second-to-none. Although having excellent facilities and highly paid staff isn’t necessarily a requirement for success, it certainly doesn’t hurt. It’s hard to achieve greatness if you’re not willing to spend money or make sacrifices to put yourself in the best position.

• Take advantages of the opportunities when they arrive — Alabama did not have to win all of its games in order to win the national title. However, it won the games that mattered. In the same vein, we don’t have to “win” all of our battles, but we should be willing to step up when it counts.

• Never allow yourself to be out-worked — Coach Nick Saban and his staff work around-the-clock hours to ensure that their program is the best run and organized in the country. If we want to be successes in our lives, we’ve got to work harder than our competitors.

In many ways, football is just a silly little game. But like so many things in life, we can learn something from it. Whether you say “Roll Tide” or “Go Dawgs!” or even “War Eagle,” there is arguably something we can all learn from the Tide’s success.