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Why Alabama is Back Hosting Season Openers: All Things CW
It'll probably be a long time before the Crimson Tide plays another neutral-site opener, and what oddsmakers say about Alabama players.
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The last time the University of Alabama football team opened a season at Bryant-Denny Stadium, there were four main story lines heading into the game.
1) Junior-college transfer Duron Carter was cleared academically and the wide receiver was finally on the Crimson Tide roster (of course, he never played a game for Alabama).
2) Nick Saban had yet to announce a starter between sophomore AJ McCarron and redshirt freshman Phillip Sims, saying “It’s out of fairness to them that both guys get an opportunity in this game.” (McCarron end up being a three-year starter).
3) Barrett Jones moved to left tackle, but would play in three different spots during the opener (he was won the Outland Trophy at left tackle and a year later he moved to center and won the Rimington Trophy).
4) It was Alabama's first game after the April 27th tornado.
There were remembrances, a moment of silence, thank you ovations for emergency rescue workers, and ribbons strategically placed on helmets and on the field at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
The Crimson Tide subsequently dismembered Saban's alma mater, Kent State, 48-7.
The tornado recovery was obviously the most important thing that day, but it was also a transition point in Alabama's scheduling approach. Three years previous, the No. 24 Crimson Tide had opened the 2008 season with an impressive win against No. 9 Clemson, 34-10, in the 2008 Chick-fil-A Kickoff Classic.
The game had huge ramifications, and even ended up on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Among them:
• It signaled to college football that a new era had arrived with Saban at Alabama.
• It launched the Crimson Tide's undefeated regular season, and run that lasted carried through the 2009 national championship, and sparked a dynasty that's still going, with additional titles in 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017 and 2020.
• It marked the beginning of the end for Tommy Bowden at Clemson, which would promote Dabo Swinney mid-season.
• Finally, high-profile neutral-site games we suddenly in vogue, and everyone wanted Alabama.
It made sense, and was like adding a bowl game on the front end of the schedule, played in NFL stadiums or in a setting where championship game are hosted. A marquee opponent could be used as offseason motivation for the players, plus it always looked good to recruits.
Saban used it to his full advantage.
Overall, he's 15-0 in season openers at Alabama. The Crimson Tide has outscored its opponents 610-176 in those games and outgained the opposition, 6,658-3,273.
That's an average score of 40.67-11.7, and yards differential of 443.9-218.2.
Just one opponent managing to be within two touchdowns (West Virginia in 2014).
Nick Saban Season Openers
- 2007 Western Carolina, at Tuscaloosa, W 52-6
- 2008 Clemson, at Atlanta, W 34-0 - $4.17 million
- 2009 Virginia Tech, at Atlanta, W 34-24
- 2010 San Jose State, at Tuscaloosa, W 48-3
- 2011 Kent State, at Tuscaloosa, W 48-7
- 2012 Michigan, at Arlington, Tex., W 41-14
- 2013 Virginia Tech, at Atlanta, W 35-10
- 2014 West Virginia, at Atlanta, W 33-23
- 2015 Wisconsin, at Arlington, Tex., W 35-17
- 2016 Southern California, at Arlington, Tex., W 52-6
- 2017 Florida State, at Atlanta, W 24-7
- 2018 Louisville, at Orlando, Fla., W 51-14
- 2019 Duke, at Atlanta, W 42-3
- 2020 Missouri, at Columbia, Mo., W 38-19
- 2021 Miami, at Atlanta, W 44-13 5
But things have changed, and Alabama has gone back in the other direction, of signing high-profile home-and-home series with the biggest programs , often for Week 1 or 2
The lineup includes Texas this year and next, Wisconsin (2024 and 2025), Florida State (2025 and 2026), West Virginia (2026 and 2027), Notre Dame (2028 and 2029), Georgia Tech (2030 and 2031), Virginia Tech (2034 and 2035) and Arizona (2032 and 2033). It also signed Oklahoma, but it and Texas are getting ready to join the SEC.
Part of the change was to appease the fan base, which coveted more high-profile home games. Too often the Bryant-Denny schedule was a couple of strong SEC games, a couple of league games that weren't expected to be close, and three non-conference games that didn't excite anyone.
While the facility was given a $107.17 million update that was completed before the revamped 2020 season began, and is still slated for yet another renovation as part of the third and final phase of the Crimson Standard (10-year, $600 million initiative), maximizing those opportunities became a priority.
Financially, the neutral-site games weren't as appealing, either. Granted, the payout grew from the $4.17 million combined that Alabama and Clemson got in 2008, to the $6 million the Crimson Tide landed eight years later to face USC in Arlington, Texas. It crushed the Trojans 52-6, but a good part of the rewards were offset by traveling costs and logistics.
Finally, the matchups were becoming increasingly difficult, as interest from other programs waned. In 2019, the Chick-fil-A Bowl scheduled Alabama against Duke and the outcome was a predictable rout.
So no more neutral-site openers for Alabama, at least not for a while.
Consequently, the biggest indicator of how things have changed since that Kent State game is with this statistic for next week's home opener. Alabama is paying $1.91 million to Utah State, the third-highest total for a visiting team in NCAA history.
