Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey hinted that the Alabama Crimson Tide should have been in the College Football Playoff this year, a belief shared by many after seeing Georgia blow out TCU in the championship game.

It was a reminder from the governor that football season never truly ends in Alabama. It also afforded Ivey an opportunity to compare economic development with the state’s most revered sport.

In her address to the 2023 Winter Conference of the Economic Development Association of Alabama, Ivey, an Auburn graduate, praised the performance of the University of Alabama team.

Ivey said Commerce Secretary Greg Canfield was like the offensive coordinator, while economic developers throughout the state are coaches, staff and players.

Just as with college football, recruitment is key in economic development. Only instead of players, economic developers recruit industry, jobs and investment to the state, Ivey said.

Alabama has certainly made a sport of economic development in modern times, chalking up some quality wins and earning recognition from experts across the country and around the world.

And even if 2022 wasn’t a banner season for college football in the state, Ivey noted Canfield’s remarks on Monday that preliminary figures show Alabama may have set a new record for in-bound investment into the state.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey addresses the Economic Development Association of Alabama’s 2023 Winter Conference. (Hal Yeager / Governor’s Office)

Ivey rattled off economic development wins from the past year, such as the $2.5 billion Novelis project in Baldwin County, the introduction of electric vehicle (EV) production at Mercedes-Benz, the expansion of Hyundai to add EVs, a new assembly line at Airbus to produce A320 aircraft and First Solar’s $1.1 billion plant in rural Alabama.

“Folks, I’d say our highlight reel looks pretty good,” Ivey said.

But highlights of the past don’t determine future wins, she warned. “It’s time to prepare our playbook for what is to come.”

Ivey joined Canfield in calling for the Legislature to improve and extend two key incentives programs: the Alabama Jobs Act and Growing Alabama.

“If we have a play that’s working, let’s keep it going,” she said.

Ivey also pointed to the need to focus on innovation and industries of the future.

“We have to develop an economic strategy for the 2030s today,” she said.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey addresses the Economic Development Association of Alabama’s 2023 Winter Conference while Alabama Commerce Secretary Greg Canfield, center, and ADECA Director Kenneth Boswell look on. (Hal Yeager / Governor’s Office)

Ivey said her time as governor has seen more than $40 billion in capital investment and more than 73,000 jobs created. She said 2023 is off to a strong start with a new aviation academy announced in Selma and Tuesday’s grand opening of the Aldi regional headquarters and distribution center in Baldwin County. (Ivey had planned to attend that event, but fog prevented her traveling there.)

She called on help from the state’s economic development community as she enters her new term.

“I challenge each of you over the next four years to help draw on our roots and build on our successes,” she said.