Unlike a good neighbor, Alabama football is still not there for in-state schools

This is an opinion column.

Let’s talk about THE University of Alabama. So-called. Let’s talk about its football scheduling philosophy. So contradictory.

On the one hand, Alabama football has set a standard for what non-conference scheduling should be. Florida State and Wisconsin this season. Ohio State and Notre Dame on the horizon. Power conference opponents galore for years.

Salute. That’s big-boy scheduling befitting one of the sport’s biggest brands.

So why can’t the folks at the Capstone get it right when they go searching for other non-conference opponents to throw money and opportunity at? Why won’t they, like Auburn, keep it down home, cuz?

Because it can be done. It’s being done all across the SEC. Shout out to Florida. The Gators know home is where the heart is. They’ll play three games this season against teams from the Sunshine State, at home against South Florida and annual rival Florida State, on the road against Miami.

Hat tip to South Carolina. The Gamecocks also understand what it means to share the water from the local well. They’ll play three in-state opponents in South Carolina State, Coastal Carolina and traditional rival Clemson.

In all, 11 of the SEC’s 16 football teams will play 18 non-conference games this season without crossing state lines. Brian Kelly, whose LSU team will play Louisiana Tech and Southeastern Louisiana, explained at SEC Media Days.

“Why not play the schools from your own state and share the revenue?” Kelly said. “If we’re going to have to pay somebody to come in and play us, why not pay your in-state schools and take care of them?”

Good question. It’s one we’ve been asking Alabama for decades, through one coach and athletics director after another. Not one of them has provided a good answer.

Greg Byrne reiterated the longstanding party line shortly after coming on board as the Alabama athletics director in 2017. During his first visit to the SEC spring meeting in that position, he made it clear that he was not going to change the system.

“I think we have a very good (scheduling) model that’s worked well for us,” he said, “and I don’t see that changing.”

During Nick Saban’s 17-year Alabama tenure, the coach who didn’t mind playing Louisiana schools while at LSU punted every time that ball entered his court. He called it “a philosophy that’s above my paygrade.” As if any subject related to Alabama football were above his paygrade.

The head coach has changed, but Alabama still stands alone on that defiant island. Of the five SEC teams that don’t play an in-state, non-conference opponent this season, the other four have done it far more recently than Alabama.

Missouri, Oklahoma and Vanderbilt have done it since 2021. It’s been a good long while for Ole Miss, but the Rebels did play Southern Miss back in 1984.

How stubborn has Alabama been? You have to go back 81 years to 1944 – the year before World War II ended – to find the last time the Crimson Tide stepped on the same football field as another school in the state not named Auburn. On Oct. 7, 1944, Alabama beat Samford, then known as Howard College, 63-7.

Auburn has been a much better neighbor in terms of spending its money on guarantee games on Alabama schools. The Tigers have played an in-state non-conference opponent 10 times in the last 14 years. They’ve met Samford four times, Alabama A&M three times, Alabama State twice and Jacksonville State once in that span.

Auburn’s record in those games: 10-0. Only Jax State made the Tigers sweat. In 2015, Gus Malzahn’s third Auburn team had to score with 39 seconds left to force overtime. In the extra period, the heavy favorite escaped with a 27-20 victory.

When Auburn welcomes South Alabama to Jordan-Hare Stadium for homecoming on Sept. 13, the Jaguars will become the sixth in-state school the Tigers have chosen to play since 1996, when they beat UAB in their only meeting. Auburn is scheduled to add North Alabama to that list in 2028. The noteworthy omission from Auburn’s willingness to give its in-state brethren an opportunity and a payday is Troy.

Alabama supporters like to argue that it’s not the Crimson Tide’s responsibility to help fund or promote anyone else’s program. That point would carry more weight if Alabama weren’t funding and promoting programs from other states in other conferences that compete directly with in-state schools.

Last season, Alabama paid Western Kentucky $1.9 million to christen the Kalen DeBoer era in Tuscaloosa, a game the Tide dominated 63-0. The Hilltoppers are a member of Conference USA, where they compete with Jacksonville State. Imagine how much Jax State would benefit from a one-day payday of $1.9 million and how much it would mean to the Gamecocks to compete in Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Not that not playing Alabama bothered JSU. In its second year in the league, its second season in the Football Bowl Subdivision, Jax State destroyed Western Kentucky in the C-USA Championship Game 52-12.

This season, while the Gamecocks head to Central Florida, UAB visits Tennessee and Troy travels to Clemson in payday games, Alabama will spend its money on Louisiana-Monroe and Eastern Illinois.

Sigh. Out-of-state opponents. Out-of-state students. And you call yourself THE University of Alabama.