Re: AD Byrne - We Need Some Quality OOC Home and Homes
Btw - times were not really as 'great' 'in the old days as folks want to say. We played six - occasionally seven - SEC games per year and 4-5 out of conference games.
In the 1970s, we won the SEC damn near every year (only missed in 1970 and 1976).
Anyone know who we played out of conference back then?
1971- USC, Southern Miss, Houston Miami (the last 2 were nobodies back then, USM not that great - USC was so good that some folks think their 1972 team is the best of all-time)
1972 - Duke, USM, Va Tech (pre-Beamer, a nobody)
1973 - Cal, Va Tech, Miami
1974 - Maryland (decent), USM, FSU, Miami (FSU was 1-10 and we beat them late, 8-7)
1975 - Mizzou, Clemson, Washington, TCU, USM (lost to Mizzou, Clemson was 2-9, Washington was up and coming)
1976 - SMU, USM, Louisville, Notre Dame
1977 - Nebraska, USC, Louisville, Miami
1978 - Nebraska, USC, Washington, Mizzou, Va Tech
1979 - Ga Tech, Baylor, Wichita St, Va Tech, Miami
Then remember some things:
1) USM played in a high school stadium so the game was ALWAYS in Alabama. There was no home and home.
2) The Ole Miss and MSU-Bama games very often were played NOT on campus at Ole Miss or in Stark-Vegas but three hours down the road in Jackson Mississippi. In fact, they sometimes had 'doubleheader Saturdays,' where one team played around noon and the other kicked off at seven pm. MSU started playing ALL of their SEC games on campus in 1991 and Ole Miss in 1994.
(I only bring this up because there weren't - technically - home/home back then, either. Hell, Alabama played most of the IMPORTANT games at Legion Field, which isn't in Tuscaloosa, either).
3) We only played Cal in a HOME game for Alabama in 1973. There was no home/home despite the fact that Cal's home stadium seated over 76,000 at the time....keep in mind that's 16,000 more people than fit NOW in Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon. We then played Maryland only in an AWAY game in 1974 - in former Bryant assistant Jerry Claiborne's first head coaching game (he would later do okay at UK, too).
But I know what you'll say - "Oh, but we had all those GLORIOUS SEC rivalries!!!" WRONG!!!!!
Did you know that Alabama and Ole Miss did not play each other from Veterans Day 1944 until New Years Day 1964? That's almost twenty full years!!
Or what about Georgia? We used to play Georgia every year, and the game was usually the same week we either play bye or LSU nowadays. Then they became our opener (1959-65). In the fallout of the alleged fix of the 1962 game....all of a sudden.....we played UGA in 72-73-76-77-84-85-90-91. So in the thirty-year span from the alleged fix to the SEC divisional split, we played UGA eight times total in an old rivalry that we used to play every single year and often as the opener.
Want to know how many times in those 30 years we played BOTH UGA AND Ole Miss in the SAME season?
1976 and 1977. That's it.
Yes, you read that correctly. Only twice did we play both Ole Miss and UGA in the same year (going backwards) after 1944.
Our common opponents through the years were Auburn (every year now since 1948) and Miss St (we have played the Bulldogs every single year the SEC has been in existence except 1937 and the year we didn't field a team, 1943....plus we played them for most of the 22 years prior to 1933 and the founding of the SEC).
What about Florida? From 1930-1969 (40 full seasons), we only played the Gators EIGHT times...and then we went 6-0 against them in the 70s and 1-1 in the 80s before Spurrier arrived. Sixteen meetings in 60 years.
Wanna hear something more insane? During that same time we played Tulane (an SEC team during much of that time) 23 times during those years we were only playing Florida eight.
We also played SEC foe Ga Tech every single year from 1947-1964 (and went 1-6 during the Red Drew and Ears Whitworth years).
What I'm saying is that that nostalgic past and those glory rivalries are MOSTLY myths and the 1980s was a unique time that enabled it. Remember - entering the 1980s MANY schools including Penn State, Notre Dame, Miami, Florida State, West Virginia, and others were not affiliated with any conferences. Those schools plus Army and Navy and - back then - MANY others - set up their own schedules.
Now follow me: Independent schools means no conference meaning no guaranteed games every year with whoever which MANDATES a school like Penn State needed an Alabama on their schedule for revenue. (Notre Dame not so much). Those days are gone because those schools save ND, Army, and Navy are all members of conferences with mandatory tie-ins and sometimes nine-game schedules.
And even with all of that, who did we play in the 1980s? See if you don't notice something....
Ga Tech 1980-84 (Tech joined the ACC in 1983....good-bye old rivalry)
Rutgers 1980-81 (Independent)
USM 1980-83, 85-87, 89 (Independent)
Notre Dame 1980, 86-87 (Independent)
Penn State 1981-1990 (joined Big Ten coming off that - started conference play in 1993)
Arky St 1982 (Independent)
Cincinnati 1982, 84-85, 90 (Independent, there was no Big East back then)
Memphis 1983-85-86-87-89-91 (Independent)
Boston College 1983-84 (Independent)
La-Lafayette 1984-87-88-89-90 (Independent)
Texas A/M 1985-88 (SWC)
Ohio State 1986 (Big Ten - Kickoff Classic arranged by network/NCAA)
Temple 1986-88-91 (Independent)
Note that with the exceptions of ATM and Ohio State (a one shot wonder), ALL of our opponents had ZERO conference tie-ins.
This world no longer exists!!!!
Back then it was an 11-game season. Let's say for the sake of argument we wanted to play Michigan State. In eleven games, they had EIGHT Big Ten conference games back then. That left them three games and one HAD to be Notre Dame. Do you REALLY think that even if we wanted to play Michigan State that they would have wanted to add Alabama to that schedule?
What about USC? Well, eight conference games for them, too. And the ninth MUST be Notre Dame. That leaves USC TWO games to schedule...and remember that the Western states are bigger than the Eastern states (e.g. it's 1,117 miles to Pullman, Washington from the USC campus...that's 250 miles further back then than Florida has to go to play Missouri...and USC/Wazzu was almost every year).
Do you really think they wanted a home/home with Alabama, either?
That's not to say there are not some GREAT SEC rivalries involving Alabama - most notably Tennessee (before the relationship soured) but also LSU and - before the Graining/Holt incident (Tech) and the alleged fix (UGA).
I concur with the OP it would be nice but those days are gone and with every game on TV, the networks are going to have more influence than ever before. And the purpose here was part of 'why' it's gone.