Alabama basketball endured one of the toughest schedules in college basketball history this past season. With a difficult non-conference slate teamed with perhaps the toughest conference in college basketball history, the Crimson Tide seemed to run out of gas down the stretch of the regular season and into the SEC Tournament.
Alabama played a ridiculous seven-game stretch to end the regular season. Two years in a row now the Crimson Tide has played the toughest schedule in the country. At the end of this season, Oats reflected on his scheduling:
"Well, when you get into conference play, and everybody's as good as they are, there's no off nights," Oats said at the Final Four.
"I think it's good -- that's why I schedule non-conference -- but we may have to evaluate our non-conference schedule based on how tough our conference schedule is now. There's just not an off night."
That quote was music to Alabama fans' ears. You can still schedule a tough non-conference slate without putting your team through the ringer every night. You need "easier" opponents from time-to-time; the "buy games" that allow you to work out the kinks and try different lineup combinations to see which work the best.
You don't have to have the No. 1 strength of schedule. You don't hang a banner for that. Top 10 or even Top 25 is plenty good enough. And with how strong the SEC has become in basketball in recent seasons, Top 25 is almost a guarantee now.
One month after Oats made those comments, however, it appears he has already forgotten about them. On Thursday, news broke that Alabama and St. John's had agreed on a scheduled game at Madison Square Garden on November 8th:
Alabama's 2025-26 non-conference schedule is shaping up to be even tougher
With the addition of St. John's - a preseason Top 10 team - here's what Alabama's current non-conference schedule for next season looks like:
vs. North Dakota
@ St. John's
vs. Purdue
@ Illinois
vs. Yale
vs. Arizona
Alabama will also play in a loaded Players Era Festival in Las Vegas for the second year in a row. There's also the SEC/ACC Challenge that will pit the Crimson Tide against one of the top teams in the ACC. An Elite Eight rematch with Duke could be on the table for that.
The Crimson Tide has seen significant roster turnover this offseason. They will only return four players from last season's team. In reality, that number is only two for guys who were major contributors with Latrell Wrightsell and Houston Mallette missing the majority of the season with injuries.
Alabama has added some talented players in the Transfer Portal and has a good recruiting class coming in. But with little continuity on the roster and legitimate question marks, it would stand to reason that Oats would want a somewhat weaker schedule to get his team acclimated.
But nobody could ever call Oats a coward. For better or worse, Alabama will be as battle-tested as any team in the country heading into conference play.