This Saturday, the Texas Longhorns will travel nearly 750 miles to play football against the Crimson Tide in Bryant-Denny Stadium. For the Allstate Crossbar Classic, the mileage doesn’t seem so bad. A year from now, though, an Alabama-Texas matchup will be an SEC conference game, meaning long road trips to play conference games may become the norm.
Texas and Oklahoma’s addition to the SEC in 2024 is just one conference realignment move that may be a part of the bigger conversation surrounding super conferences and the integrity of collegiate athletics. At Alabama, the realignment raises questions about whether the Crimson Tide can maintain its historic traditions and championship-caliber excellence.
Head coach Nick Saban said the breakdown of traditions is a huge concern.
“There is a lot of traditions that we’ve had for a long time in college football, and I think we’re in a time of evolution for whatever reason. Some of those traditions are going to get pushed by the wayside,” Saban said. “It’s sad, whether it’s good, bad or indifferent for college football. You have to define what is good and bad for college football.”
Although a lot will inevitably change as conferences realign, directors are still making efforts to maintain the norm. Alabama’s 2024 opponents were partly determined by who was considered a “traditional opponent,” and in this first restructured year, all SEC teams will face three of their traditional opponents. For Alabama, this means the Crimson Tide will still play LSU in the Saban Bowl, Tennessee on the Third Saturday in October and Auburn in the Iron Bowl.
The other matchups that round out each team’s eight-game conference schedule will be determined by strength of schedule. Every existing team is also required to play either Texas or Oklahoma. This schedule format, though, is only approved for one year as the conference continues to take shape and the schedule format seeks finalization.
Despite the addition of two historic football programs, Alabama will likely stay at the top of the conference. Oklahoma and Texas both lead their all-time series against the Crimson Tide, and Alabama struggled against the Longhorns last year, but in recent years, the Crimson Tide has still managed to come out on top. Most of these games were high-stakes bowl games and championships, and with the SEC championship becoming more and more competitive every year, these new conference matchups will still be important on the schedule.
However, Alabama has its eyes set on more than just a conference championship. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said the conferences’ realignment could affect the postseason as well, even though the College Football Playoff is already introducing a 12-team format in 2024.
“The circumstances have changed, and we need to reconsider the format,” Sankey said. “I’m not convinced we need to reconsider the number of teams, and I’ve been clear that I would have been OK with an eight-team playoff with no conference champion access. That wasn’t, if you will, politically tenable within the group. So as we continued to look at the models, we came up with the six-and-six model. But, again, the circumstances have changed in a meaningful way, and my inclination is we need to reexamine the current format.”
In the Saban era, Alabama has little to worry about in terms of qualifying for a 12-team playoff. However, once conferences start realigning and money starts being thrown around, uncertainty is in the air, and anything can happen. While Alabama can compete in any conference, big or small, across the country or in the South, the thought of super conferences still raises concerns.
Sports personality Paul Finebaum said conference alignments have the potential to get pretty chaotic, especially when the conferences start to fill up.
“Because what you have right now are two super conferences in the Big Ten and the SEC,” Finebaum said. “It’s Coke and Pepsi, and when one moves, the other one reacts, and that’s exactly where we are right now in college football. Chaos would be an understatement.”
As other conferences join the power struggle, money remains at the top of the fight. For Texas and Oklahoma, one of the main motivators to join the SEC is for the conference’s deal with ESPN, and other teams looking for a new conference to call home have similar monetary motives. With money being thrown around as much as the football, the integrity of the game still needs to be maintained.
Conferences realign. It’s happened before, and it’s a basic fact in the intersection of money and sports. As long as sports remain the focus, though, Alabama football will do well in whatever game, conference and playoff it’s a part of.
