The "Nick Saban Bowl" will no longer happen.
In the first of several forthcoming scheduling adjustments for Alabama football following the SEC's move to a nine-game league schedule, Alabama and West Virginia have mutually agreed to cancel their home-and-home series for 2026 and 2027, the University of Alabama announced on Tuesday.
In a statement, Alabama Athletic Director Greg Byrne had this to say:
"We are proud of the number of high-quality home-and-home non-conference games we have scheduled for the next 10 years. That being said, we know that college athletics has been evolving and changing rapidly over the last few years, and it made sense for us to make these adjustments on our future schedules. We have a bit more flexibility as we transition to a nine-game format in the Southeastern Conference, and it gives us the opportunity to further evaluate how strength of schedule is evaluated for the College Football Playoff. Between other home-and-homes as well as conference games, we will continue to have a solid strength of schedule, which is good for our team, fans and college football."
For the 2026 season, Alabama has replaced the road trip to West Virginia with a home game against East Carolina. That will make Alabama's three-game non-conference schedule next season feature East Carolina, Florida State, and South Florida, all coming to Tuscaloosa.
More scheduling adjustments could be on the horizon for Alabama
Canceling the home-and-home series with West Virginia always made sense as the first move. Alabama was never going to play 11 games in 2026 against P4 opponents in the first year of the SEC's expanded schedule. They also weren't going to give up the second leg of the home-and-home against Florida State, with the Seminoles scheduled to make the return trip to Bryant-Denny next season.
This gives Alabama flexibility in 2026 and 2027, where they can evaluate how much strength of schedule is actually going to matter to the College Football Playoff committee going forward.
For now, Alabama only has a road trip to Ohio State on the non-conference docket for 2027. They may choose to let this season play out before filling out the remaining two games.
The most likely next series to get cancelled is the home-and-home against Oklahoma State in 2028 and 2029. Alabama is not going to give up its home game against Ohio State in 2028 after traveling to Columbus in 2027, and they certainly aren't likely to cancel the home-and-home setup with Notre Dame in 2029 and 2030, either.
Future series' against Georgia Tech, Boston College, Arizona, Minnesota, and Virginia Tech are also up in the air.