Alabama Crimson Tide News: New SEC additions and more

Roughly 18 months from now, the Alabama Crimson Tide will have a pair of new conference foes. It was announced Thursday evening that Texas and Oklahoma will be joining the SEC in fall of 2024, officially expanding the SEC to 16 teams.

Texas and Oklahoma are major brand names and huge additions for the conference. Of course, the primary driver of this move is football, where both schools have been Big 12 powers over the past three decades. Prior to that, they were traditional fixtures in the Big Eight (OU) and the Southwest Conference (Texas).

The Alabama Crimson Tide is currently in a home-and-home non-conference series with Texas, having defeated the Longhorns in Austin last season. Alabama also beat Texas in the 2009 BCS National Championship, and will host the Horns in Tuscaloosa this season. Texas leads the all-time series 7-2-1.

Bama most recently played Oklahoma in the 2018 Orange Bowl, beating the Sooners 45-34 in the College Football Playoff semifinal round. The Tide lost to OU in the 2014 Sugar Bowl by a score of 45-31. Oklahoma leads the all-time series 3-2-1.

Alabama, Texas, and Oklahoma all rank in the top-10 in college football history in wins and win percentage.

This is also an interesting addition to the conference in terms of basketball. Texas is currently a top-5 team and usually recruits at a high level, regularly putting future pros on the court.

Oklahoma has a historically strong basketball program going back to the 1980s, and has quietly kept up the tradition in recent decades. OU has produced talents such as Blake Griffin, Buddy Hield, and Trae Young over the last 15 years.

Less than two weeks ago, a mediocre Oklahoma basketball team embarrassed the Alabama Crimson Tide by delivering its worst loss of the season. Needless to say, Nate Oats and company will have vengeance in mind the first time the two meet as SEC rivals.

Alabama Crimson Tide brings championship pedigree to Super Bowl

Super Bowl Sunday, which will pit the Kansas City Chiefs against the Philadelphia Eagles, is only two days away. The Eagles can attribute much of their success to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, as they are led in part by a pair of former Bama superstars.

Quarterback Jalen Hurts and wide receiver Devonta Smith both won national titles at Alabama before bringing that championship mentality to Philly. In fact, all four former Alabama players on the Eagles roster won at least one national championship under Coach Saban.

Hurts was on the 2017 national championship team, Landon Dickerson and Josh Jobe were members of the 2020 title team, and Smith played on both squads.

Alabama Crimson Tide secures 13 NFL Draft combine invites

The NFL sent out invites for its draft combine this week, and the Alabama Crimson Tide figure to be well-represented at the event. Despite having a relatively disappointing 2022 season, a nation-leading 13 Alabama players received invites. Offensive players that received invites include junior quarterback Bryce Young, junior running back Jahmyr Gibbs, senior tight end Cameron Latu, and senior offensive linemen Tyler Steen and Emil Ekiyor Jr.

On the other side of the ball, senior defensive linemen Byron Young and DJ Dale, junior linebacker Will Anderson Jr., senior linebacker Henry To’o To’o, junior defensive backs Brian Branch and Eli Ricks, and senior safeties Jordan Battle and DeMarcco Hellams all received invites. This year’s combine will begin on February 26th and last until March 6th.

In other news, former Alabama Crimson Tide linebacker DeMeco Ryans was named 2022 AP NFL Assistant Coach of the Year on Thursday. Ryans, who was recently named head coach of the Houston Texans, won the award for his work as the San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator. DeMeco Ryans was a hard-hitting linebacker for the Tide under Mike Shula, and has developed into one of the NFL’s most promising young coaches.

Stay tuned to Bama Hammer for more Alabama Crimson Tide news and updates.