Georgia at Alabama

CBS airs NCAA rivalry game

The Georgia Bulldogs will head to BryantDenny Stadium in Tuscaloosa to face their long-standing rivals, the Alabama Crimson Tide, on Saturday, Oct. 17. You can catch this nail-biting NCAA football game when it airs live on CBS.

Alabama hasn’t lost a game to the Bulldogs since 2007 — but the teams haven’t played in Crimson Tide territory since then, either. Despite Georgia having home-field advantage the past five times these two teams have met, the roaring (or barking, perhaps) fans cheering for the Bulldogs only seemed to rile the Tide, allowing them to take the win for themselves.

The teams are currently matched for their longest winning streaks, both managing five in a row (though Alabama has done it four times now and Georgia only managed it once, and that was in 1910). If the Crimson Tide can manage to wash over the Bulldogs this Saturday, they will officially break the rivalry’s streak record and make history, becoming the first of the two teams to win six in a row since the rivals first met in 1895.

It isn’t an exaggeration to say that a lot can happen in 125 years. The Bulldogs beat Alabama 30-6 in their first meeting, which sparked the two teams’ decision to play as often as they could, including an annual match, which happened from 1944 to 1965. Georgia and Alabama were also the focus of the first-ever college football game to air on ABC in 1960. Despite being separated by the onset of the divisional era in 1992 (Alabama’s official rival became Tennessee while Georgia’s is Auburn), Tide-Bulldogs games still evoke passion from everyone who remembers their storied histories — though the fact that these two teams usually only meet for conference or national championships these days certainly helps get the crowds going.

This NCAA breakup was made official in 1992 when the teams were placed in different conferences, but the actual end came in 1966, when Alabama’s head coach, Paul “Bear” Bryant, and Georgia’s athletic director, Wally Butts, were accused of conspiring to rig the teams’ 1962 game. That part of the rivalry’s history involves a now-defunct magazine, a $3-million payout, the United States Supreme Court and the end of an NCAA football era — it’s certainly worth reading about if you have the time or taste to learn more.

After 125 years, this rivalry got a fresh push in 2016 when Georgia hired Kirby Smart as its new head coach. Smart is a former Bulldogs defensive back who also happens to have been the defensive coordinator and assistant head coach to the Crimson Tide’s Nick Saban for nearly a decade. Saban-Smart has become a rivalry within a rivalry for these two teams.

Don’t miss the kickoff as Bulldog Nation attempts to ride the Crimson Tide when the game airs live, Saturday, Oct. 17, on CBS.