Few college football programs have won as prolifically as the Alabama Crimson Tide. In their illustrious history, the Crimson Tide have won 985 games over the course of 134 years. They have claimed 18 national championships, including six under Nick Saban. Three of them took place in the College Football Playoff. However, Alabama has still not played every program in the country before.
In time, the list of who Alabama has yet to face will dwindle away. Of course, it will be increasingly difficult with nine conference games part of a 12-game regular-season slate. Needless to say, Greg Byrne has some work to do. Fortunately, every other program in the sport has a boatload of teams it has never played before either. This post is all about seeing who Alabama has never gone up against.
So let's start with the Power Four before working our way through the Group of Six in this exercise.
Power Four programs Alabama Crimson Tide have never played before
Per Winsipedia, these are all the Power Four teams Alabama has yet to play on the college gridiron.
- Arizona Wildcats
- Arizona State Sun Devils
- Iowa Hawkeyes
- Kansas Jayhawks
- Northwestern Wildcats
- Oregon Ducks
- Pittsburgh Panthers
- Purdue Boilermakers
- Virginia Cavaliers
- Wake Forest Demon Deacons
Heading into the 2026-27 college season, Alabama has not played 10 of the 68 teams currently competing at the Power Four level. Those would include three teams out of the ACC (Pittsburgh, Virginia, Wake Forest), four from the Big Ten (Iowa, Northwestern, Oregon, Purdue), and three playing in the Big 12 (Arizona, Arizona State, Kansas). Some of these teams are more shocking than others.
The one that makes the least amount of sense is Iowa. The SEC and Big Ten often play each other within the context of bowl season. Iowa has not changed leagues in recent years. Moreover, the Hawkeyes have not really been bad since before Hayden Fry took over in Iowa City. This just may be a consequence of Iowa not being very courageous in scheduling quality teams in the non-conference.
Alabama may play some of these teams soon, but it has so many Group of Six teams to sort through.
Group of Six programs Alabama Crimson Tide have never played before
Behold! Every team competing at the Group of Six level that has not played Alabama even one time.
- Air Force Falcons
- Akron Zips
- Appalachian State Mountaineers
- Ball State Cardinals
- Boise State Broncos
- Buffalo Bulls
- Central Michigan Chippewas
- Charlotte 49ers
- Coastal Carolina Chanticleers
- Delaware Blue Hens
- Eastern Michigan Eagles
- Jacksonville State Gamecocks
- James Madison Dukes
- Marshall Thundering Herd
- Miami RedHawks
- Missouri State Bears
- Nevada Wolf Pack
- New Mexico Lobos
- North Dakota State Bison
- Ohio Bobcats
- Old Dominion Monarchs
- Oregon State Beavers
- Sacramento State Hornets
- Sam Houston Bearkats
- San Diego State Aztecs
- South Alabama Jaguars
- Texas State Bobcats
- Toledo Rockets
- Troy Trojans
- UAB Blazers
- UConn Huskies
- UMass Minutemen
- UNLV Rebels
- UTSA Roadrunners
- Western Michigan Broncos
- Wyoming Cowboys
As you can see, there are a whopping 36 teams competing at the Group of Six level Alabama has not played before. This includes four teams in-state (Jacksonville State, South Alabama, Troy, UAB). While most of those schools are relatively new to FBS, Alabama does not seem willing to take on the risk of potentially losing to one of their many in-state "little brothers." UAB feels like the most egregious one.
While it should come as no surprise that Alabama has not played many Group of Six programs out west, its lack of games with teams out of the MAC is strange. So far, Alabama has only played three teams out of that league: Bowling Green, Nick Saban's alma mater of Kent State, and Northern Illinois, who will be joining the Mountain West in football for this season. The MAC has been around for ages.
Now that we have identified these 46 teams, are there any who are slated to play Alabama here soon?
Who are the next most likely programs to get crossed off Alabama's list?
Assuming there are no major scheduling changes, the two programs that are most likely to come off the list next are the Marshall Thundering Herd in 2027 at Bryant-Denny, followed a handful of years later by a home-and-home with the Arizona Wildcats in 2032 and 2033. The first leg of the home-and-home with Arizona will be in Tuscaloosa, with the second part of it to be played over in Tucson.
Right now, Marshall and Arizona are the only two teams Alabama has on the docket to play for the first time over in the next decade. Of course, bowl season and the College Football Playoff may allow other first-time matchups to manifest. For the sake of argument, Arizona State, Iowa, and Oregon could be the next Power Four teams to be crossed off the board for Alabama in a postseason game.
Overall, this list of opponents Alabama has never played before is probably never going to get all the way down to zero. To be frank, for Alabama to get many of these Group of Six teams on the schedule, not only will Byrne and the athletic department have to free up space in the non-conference for them, but they will also have to pay their opponent millions of dollars to come to Alabama to play, and lose...
While the Power Four allocation may eventually hit zero, the Group of Six will always have work to do.
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