Alabama Football: Say goodbye to neutral site season openers

The tradition of Alabama football playing neutral site games to start the season appears to be ending as the Tide schedule another home-and-home.

It came out recently that Alabama will be playing Wisconsin in a home-and-home series. The games will be played in September of 2024 and 2025, with Wisconsin getting the first chance to host a game. This is a part of a recent initiative by Alabama to schedule tough opponents in home-and-home series as opposed to playing them once at a neutral site.

The change from neutral site games is long overdue. Alabama has played teams ranging from Louisville to USC to start the season in recent memory, and they have won every game. Most of these games are either played in Atlanta or Texas, which means the fans have to travel and usually spend the night. It also keeps season ticket holders for home games from getting a key game outside the conference in their ticket package, along with students not being able to attend. Although Alabama travels well, it becomes expensive to go to road games, expensive neutral site games, and potential postseason games.

This effort of scheduling tough opponents include games against Wisconsin, Texas, Notre Dame, and Oklahoma. This will also help with the stigma that Alabama always has a weak schedule. They will still have their easier games, but one major matchup outside of the conference will be enough to keep the CFP Selection Committee happy.

Now, there were benefits to the neutral site games. It’s the closest Alabama can get to prepare for the postseason. Between the traveling to a new city, professional field, and neutral crowd, it really gives the team something to build from once the playoff starts. This is especially true when they play in Atlanta. The SEC Championship game is hosted in Atlanta, so the Tide get the opportunity to play on the very field they will try to be playing on in December.

It also appears that Alabama is simply scheduling tougher opponents. The college football landscape will be very different by the time these games are played, but Oklahoma and Texas seem to be tougher opponents than any Alabama has faced in the past few years. Their toughest opponent was Florida State, but that was the end of the Seminoles and their glory years.

Saban has methodically made this decision. He has probably taken into account the team, the recruitment benefit, and dozens of other factors before deciding to stop the neutral site games. If he is still the Alabama football coach when the games are played, the team will be in the best position to win. Either way, the fans will get to travel to some elite college football towns in the next decade.