2025 Alabama Football Schedule just released

[KrAzY3]

Incredibly brutal schedule. I think some people are still so lost in recency bias and wins and losses that they can't look at something like this and realize how incredibly difficult it is.

Let's put this in a different context. This is like scheduling one of the better teams from the Big 12, one of the better teams from the ACC, and one of the better teams from the Big 10 and then playing your already tough SEC schedule on top of that. It's insane and equally insane that the morons on the committee and people that can't comprehend SoS won't realize it.

 

[DzynKingRTR]

If you think this is a brutal schedule, wait until 2026. I am betting it will make this one look tame by comparison.

 

[22Musso22]

Looks like a 6-6 win loss record. DuBose-Shula days are back.

 

[BamaNation]

Drop all the big games coming up with Ohio State, etc. Zero incentive to run the risk of a loss now.

Caution: As soon as we do this, they'll re-emphasize SOR & SOS and these games are next to impossible to schedule.

Being rational, we just have to BEAT EVERYBODY to make the path clear to the CFP.

 

[BamaInBham]

UGA, LSU, Missouri, Oklahoma all have open dates before playing us

That is rough. And AU is open/Mercer before Alabama. At least Alabama is open before UGA and LSU.

Again Alabama has this most opponents open, I think tied this time with LSU. Thank you Greg Sankey - you’re probably sending anonymous communications to Bama’s opponents suggesting open dates before the Bama game with a $10M bonus if thy can pull it off.

As we saw this year unreciprocated open dates do matter despite the overall stats that say open dates don’t matter.

 

[BamaInBham]

Bama was 3-1 against the 4 open dates. of course, the Ok open date helped them greatly.

Alabama was 2-2 vs teams who had an open date. Wins: UGA & LSU, Losses: Vandy & OU.

Alabama had open dates prior to UGA & LSU. In unreciprocated open dates games Bama was 0-2. Unreciprocated open dates really matter.

Alabama has 2 more this year: Missouri and OU, a much tougher row to hoe.

 

[sanjosecrimson]

Alabama was 2-2 vs teams who had an open date. Wins: UGA & LSU, Losses: Vandy & OU.

Alabama had open dates prior to UGA & LSU. In unreciprocated open dates games Bama was 0-2. Unreciprocated open dates really matter.

Alabama has 2 more this year: Missouri and OU, a much tougher row to hoe.

I stand corrected, but our record remains the same vs the teams that were mentioned.

 

[Jack Bourbon]

I feel bad for Oklahoma

 

[Isaiah 63:1]

Major SEC change is called for, which should be based on understanding how college football and the CFP work now, not how they used to work or how we want them to work.

Teams change too much each year now with portal and NIL to have even a two year conference schedule be balanced among the members (not that this years was. Exhibit A: Texas, whose next top 25 win this season will be their first). And its easier than ever for a team to buy its way to the CFP almost overnight (Exhibit B: SMU). Unless the SEC doesn't primarily care about how many SEC schools make the CFP each year, Sankey needs to grok this pronto and implement tectonic changes starting with the 2026 schedule.

At a minimum, I think this has to mean scheduling each conference season on an annual basis sometime between when the January portal closes and the end of spring practice. You'd lose some return home games at times, of course, but there's no way that matters more now than achieving as balanced a schedule as possible for all conference members each year. If the SEC doesn't know how to do this, we have an optimization program we could adapt. If it can handle a 365-day airline schedule for hundreds of aircraft over many time zones, it can certainly handle an 8-week schedule for 16 football teams over two time zones.

I'd actually consider going further, unless a breakaway with the B1G is imminent, but that's a longer post and would likely (and reasonably) get lots of TLDRs...

 

[B1GTide]

I feel bad for Oklahoma

I thought that about USF.

 

[Roll Tide 00]

We won’t be relevant again until our strength of schedule lowers to match the top teams.That definitely won’t be next year.

 

[DzynKingRTR]

We won’t be relevant again until our strength of schedule lowers to match the top teams.That definitely won’t be next year.

Probably not the next year either. We will probably get sexat added, an improved Florida team, ole miss. Off our schedule will be uga, vandy, and oklahoma.

 

[Con]

What can’t half the teams have a bye week then the next week play each other then the other half have a bye then when they come back play each other?

 

[Evil Crimson Dragon]

We won’t be relevant again until our strength of schedule lowers to match the top teams.That definitely won’t be next year.

I dont know...................we might be surprised. I wouldnt mind seeing Sankey shown the door

 

[BamaMoon]

I haven't read the thread so maybe this has been discussed.

But as I understand it this is the second year of a two year cycle for SEC scheduling that involves our two newest conference members.

However, have there been any decisions about future scheduling? I'm pretty sure a 9 game conference schedule will NOT be happening due to what happened in the playoff selection hysteria this year.

But I'm very interested in how scheduling (especially annual rivalry games will be handled). If this isn't handled correctly, some teams will get hosed while others will get helped.

 

[Cruloc]

Transfer portal is a mess
Scheduling is a mess
NIL is a mess
College football is a mess
Playoff bracket is a mess

 

[Bpilktree]

The schedules are not equal out of conference for sure but even in conferences they have vast differences. I feel we are middle ground difficulty for rest of SEC teams. I always look more at who you face on the road as good teams should win their home games in the SEC. We are at Georgia, at South Carolina, at Missouri, and at Auburn. Just need to go 3-1 in those to feel positive about season. The schedule could be a lot worse. Oklahoma’s road games are at Texas in Dallas, at South Carolina, at Tennessee, and at Alabama. Good look with that.

 

[Cruloc]

The schedules are not equal out of conference for sure but even in conferences they have vast differences. I feel we are middle ground difficulty for rest of SEC teams. I always look more at who you face on the road as good teams should win their home games in the SEC. We are at Georgia, at South Carolina, at Missouri, and at Auburn. Just need to go 3-1 in those to feel positive about season. The schedule could be a lot worse. Oklahoma’s road games are at Texas in Dallas, at South Carolina, at Tennessee, and at Alabama. Good look with that.

We don't have anything in the SEC like the Indiana situation this year. Where they make the playoffs because they played the whole bottom half of their conference, never really got challenged playing good teams week in and week out.

Indiana, with an SEC schedule....1. doesn't make the playoffs...2. probably is 8-4 or 9-3.

 

[TideEngineer08]

The schedules are not equal out of conference for sure but even in conferences they have vast differences. I feel we are middle ground difficulty for rest of SEC teams. I always look more at who you face on the road as good teams should win their home games in the SEC. We are at Georgia, at South Carolina, at Missouri, and at Auburn. Just need to go 3-1 in those to feel positive about season. The schedule could be a lot worse. Oklahoma’s road games are at Texas in Dallas, at South Carolina, at Tennessee, and at Alabama. Good look with that.

OU/Texas is not a road game. It's never a road game. Both teams have the same number of fans in the stands, and the distance to the Cotton Bowl is almost equal between Norman, OU and Austin, TX.

Secondly, if we go 3-1 vs. our road schedule next year, I'll be amazed. We probably need to be looking at 2-2 as a win overall. Missouri and South Carolina are much improved, and we nearly lost to South Carolina at home this year. Georgia is what it is. True, we've pretty much owned them since 2007 and we have not lost in Athens since 2003 BUT we've only played there twice since then. And I should not have to explain playing at Auburn.

I think if we can go 10-2 next season, we ought to be very confident in DeBoer going forward.

 

[92tide]

OU/Texas is not a road game. It's never a road game. Both teams have the same number of fans in the stands, and the distance to the Cotton Bowl is almost equal between Norman, OU and Austin, TX.

Secondly, if we go 3-1 vs. our road schedule next year, I'll be amazed. We probably need to be looking at 2-2 as a win overall. Missouri and South Carolina are much improved, and we nearly lost to South Carolina at home this year. Georgia is what it is. True, we've pretty much owned them since 2007 and we have not lost in Athens since 2003 BUT we've only played there twice since then. And I should not have to explain playing at Auburn.

I think if we can go 10-2 next season, we ought to be very confident in DeBoer going forward.

we are 7-0 vs them in the state of georgia since 2008, including 2 within the same calendar year