The University of Alabama and Georgia State University have agreed to move their game up two days from the original Nov. 20 to Nov. 18, making it a rare Thursday night game for the Crimson Tide.
It will be the first Thursday night game for the Tide since facing Southern Miss on Nov. 29, 2001, which was rescheduled due to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Alabama won at Legion Field in Birmingham, 28-15.
With this football change, the academic calendar also changes. Originally, fall break for students was scheduled for October 28-31, giving students two days off from classes. Now, classes will still be held on Thursday, Oct. 28, and classes are cancelled for the Thursday gameday.
“We have a number of scheduling challenges this year in football and this was the best way for us to deal with one of those,” athletics director Mal Moore said in a statement. “We explored all options available to us, with our players’ healthy and safety in mind. This was our best remedy. We deeply appreciate everyone’s cooperation, particularly Dr. (Robert) Witt and Georgia State.”
The Georgia State football team is in its inaugural season, and it was recently joined by former Alabama quarterback Star Jackson. Additionally, former Alabama head coach Bill Curry has taken on the job as head football coach at Georgia State.
Last year, Alabama had only six days to prepare for Auburn, while the Tigers had a bye week before the Iron Bowl and therefore an extra week to practice.
With this game change, the Tide has only five days between the games against Mississippi State and Georgia State, but then will have two extra days before the game against in-state rival Auburn, which is being played in Bryant-Denny Stadium Nov. 26, the day after Thanksgiving.
The Iron Bowl, traditionally played on Saturday, has been moved up to Friday two years in a row due to television scheduling.
Auburn again has a bye week before the team comes into Tuscaloosa. They’re not the only team either. Of Alabama’s eight SEC opponents, five other teams have a bye week before their own Alabama games.
This is the second consecutive school year the University has changed its academic calendar to accommodate football. In the spring 2009 semester the University cancelled three days of class when the Tide headed to Pasadena, Calif. for the national championship.
“Alabama has more students in class and on campus on Thursdays than any other day of the week,” said Cathy Andreen in UA Media Relations. “With several thousand fans and visitors coming to campus for a Thursday game, it is not logistically possible for the campus to continue to operate in a ‘business as usual’ manner.
“By taking advantage of and shifting an already planned semester break day, there will be no loss of class time. We are announcing this now, to give students, faculty and staff as much time as possible so they can make adjustments, if needed, to their plans for the semester break.”
However, classes on Wednesday, Nov. 17 and Friday, Nov. 19 are still being held.
Some students expressed frustration with the calendar change.
“Basically, that means I don’t get to go home for fall break,” said Brad Erthal, a junior majoring in economics from Denver, Colo.
In-state student Kayla Glass, a junior majoring in nursing, also realized the inconvenience the scheduling change had on others.
“I think it’s great that the University is giving us the day off for the football game, but I think that the scheduling could have been better done to avoid costing students, faculty and staff a day off their fall break for this event,” she said.
Thursday night games will not become a regular occurrence for the Tide, said Doug Walker, associate athletics director for media relations.
“The situation we addressed solely concerned our scheduling difficulties this season,” he said.
