Alabama Football: Stop saying the Tide have weak schedules

Alabama football has a false reputation regarding their scheduling.

When you are as successful as Alabama football has been over the past two decades, critics will take any opportunity that they can get to tear you down. That has happened to the Crimson Tide for many years. People argue about if Alabama players are truly successful in the NFL, if the team is as good as advertised, and a plethora of other false arguments. One argument revolves around their scheduling, and it is simply not true.

People say that Alabama has weak schedules every season and are thus overhyped. However, that is not the case. They play quality teams. They just win by a large margin anyways. In fact, the Crimson Tide will have their toughest schedule in over a decade in 2020.

History of losing respect in blowout wins can go back to Jalen’s freshman season against USC. Many people had high hopes for the Trojans, but the Tide won convincingly. However, USC went on to win the Rose Bowl in that season, and people did not give Alabama any credit for beating them. Alabama football also embarrassed Florida State in the following season. The Seminoles were a CFP contender in 2017, but losing their starting quarterback caused them to tailspin in a way that they have yet to recover from. Because of this, Alabama still gets no respect.

With games like these, people criticize Alabama for playing at a neutral site. There are plenty of positives for doing so, but one negative is that people can claim that you never face a true road environment outside of your conference. However, that will no longer be the case in the future. Alabama has scheduled plenty of home-and-home series for the next few years, but they just added Ohio State to their slate. They will play at OSU in 2027, and Ohio State will travel to Tuscaloosa in 2028.

This mens that Alabama will be playing Notre Dame and Ohio State in 2028. Before then, the Tide will have home-and-home matchups against Texas, Wisconsin, Florida State, and West Virginia. They will also have a series against the Oklahoma Sooners in the future.

You can now not say that Alabama football doesn’t play anyone. They have the toughest neutral site games, the toughest conference games, and the toughest road games on their resume. They’ll go play at Texas, Wisconsin, and Ohio State. They’ll play in the heat the cold, and everything in between.

Critics will surely find a new way to attack the Crimson Tide, but the argument of scheduling has been put to bed.