Alabama Football: Thoughts on the SEC schedule release

Alabama football has a 2022 schedule

While Alabama football fans mostly knew who they were going to play next season, the schedules for every SEC team were finalized on Monday. We now know who every team will play and when, giving us crucial information about the 2022 season.

Alabama football‘s season will start at home as expected, but the Tide will then travel to Austin to play the Texas Longhorns. This matchup was announced years ago, but the intricacies have changed now that Steve Sarkisian is in charge of UT. Sarkisian will hope to beat his former boss in their first matchup against each other.

Most of the Tide’s conference schedule remains constant. They’ll play Auburn at the end of the year. Their rivalry game with Tennessee will be played on the third Saturday in October. After a bye week during Halloween, the Tide will travel to play LSU.

One big change to the schedule is when they’ll play Ole Miss. With the way that Lane Kiffin has changed that program, the Rebels appear to be one of the Tide’s biggest challenges moving forward. They’ll play the Rebels the week after traveling to LSU, making this one of Alabama football’s toughest stints of the season.

In terms of the SEC as a whole, there are winners and losers. Georgia is an easy winner. They’ll have to beat Oregon in the first week at a neutral site, but it will essentially be a home game. After that, their toughest opponents are Florida and Auburn. They’ll get to play Auburn early, and the Florida game is still after their bye week. After that, the rest of their schedule is a cakewalk.

Auburn and Missouri are the biggest losers. After playing LSU at home, Auburn travels to play Georgia and Ole Miss in consecutive weeks. That means they could be on a three-game losing streak heading into the bye. Their bye is before Arkansas, so they’d definitely prefer it to be before a bigger game. They also have to play Texas A&M two weeks before Alabama. This is better than playing Georgia at the end of the year, but the Tigers are still at a disadvantage.

Missouri’s three toughest games will be played in consecutive weeks before the bye, so they also drew the short straw with the schedule.

Alabama football will be prepared regardless of when they play their opponents, but this is vital information for next season. Fans can now start planning their trips to Tuscaloosa and other cities.