Texas vs. Alabama worthy of celebration
It’s too much to suggest Alabama’s and Texas’ fortunes pivoted with a pinched nerve.
Alabama might have won the Bowl Championship Series national title anyway that night in January 2010. If it hadn’t, surely Nick Saban’s dynasty would have commenced soon.
And even if Colt McCoy hadn’t hurt his right shoulder in the first quarter, even if he had completed the game and Texas had won — Mack Brown has always insisted that’s how it would have gone — the Longhorns star would have been finished after that. Their quarterback issues would surely have unspooled anyway, the program spiraling along with them.
But McCoy and Texas went down. Alabama’s rise began, the first of five national championships in a decade of unparalleled excellence.
Which brings us to the delicious series announced Wednesday. Alabama and Texas will play in Austin in 2022 and in Tuscaloosa in 2023. College football fans should celebrate the development — especially if it signals a trend.
Yeah, that’s four and five years out. Although that’s actually not long at all when it comes to non-conference scheduling, there’s no way to know if the Crimson Tide will still be rolling along under Saban (who says, over and over again, that he has no thoughts of retiring) or Tom Herman will have returned Texas to the top (or if someone else will be trying to do so).
It’s unlikely either game will become the kind of pivot point as the storied programs’ last meeting — though it could be a College Football Playoff accelerant for either (or maybe even both). But it is exactly the kind of intersectional matchup the sport needs.
College football’s tapestry is enriched when Ohio State and Oklahoma meet in Norman and Columbus. When Texas and Southern California play in Los Angeles Coliseum and then in Austin. Or the Longhorns in South Bend, and Notre Dame traveling to Texas. Or Notre Dame and Alabama, Touchdown Jesus and Tuscaloosa (coming up in 2028 and 2029). Or when Georgia and Clemson bus 75 miles to each other’s stadiums, or Clemson and Auburn travel to their similar campuses, or Auburn and Penn State play home-and-home … and so on.
Those matchups are not easy to schedule, and they bring risk, yes. But they’re worth it on multiple levels. And especially coupled with the announcement last month that Alabama and Notre Dame will play, it’s a welcome development for college football’s current dynasty.
Of all programs, Alabama could afford not to challenge itself in the non-conference schedule (if you doubt, see 2017 when the Tide did not win the Southeastern Conference West and a neutral-site matchup with Florida State turned out to be of negligible help when the Seminoles faltered to a 7-6 record); the Tide have built up that much credibility with their dominance. Yet Saban routinely proclaims his desire to schedule well in non-conference — and for others in the SEC and around college football to do the same — and backs it up with the actual schedules.
Signing up to go to Austin and South Bend also removes one of the complaints, though minor, about Alabama’s scheduling formula. The Tide’s last road non-conference game was in 2011 at Penn State.
In recent years, Alabama has mastered the art of playing (and winning, of course) one-off neutral-site games against name opponents in season openers. Since that trip to State College, Alabama has played Florida State, USC, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Virginia Tech and Michigan — all in either Atlanta or Arlington, Texas. (The Tide open the 2018 season with Louisville in Orlando.)
Those were nice matchups, but not as challenging as playing a road game.
And as important — or at least, it ought to be as important — those neutral-site games are not nearly as good for fans of either program.
When Texas comes to Tuscaloosa or Alabama visits Austin, though, those campuses will buzz.
TV will, too. Maybe everything aligns and it propels one of the programs (or both!?) into the Playoff. Regardless, it’s good for college football.