Nebraska recently made news by canceling a scheduled 2026 game with Tennessee in the latest signal that marquee non-conference games are likely going to be a thing of the past in this new era of college football.
In an appearance on the Triple Option Podcast, Rhule talked about that decision as well big non-conference games as a whole like Ohio State's matchup with Texas coming up in 2025.
“Why in the world would a Big Ten team who’s already playing nine conference games, why would you ever play one of those games?" Rhule questioned.
It's a fair question. Especially when you consider strength of schedule was not a powerful metric last season for the College Football Playoff committee. Indiana made the playoff with a non-conference schedule of FIU, Western Illinois, and Charlotte. The Hoosiers' marquee win of the regular season was over 7-5 Michigan.
It was obvious when the playoff committee left Alabama out of the playoff last season in favor of teams like Indiana and SMU that there would be widespread ramifications as a result. Alabama Athletic Director Greg Byrne said in December that he would need to re-evaluate the Crimson Tide's future non-conference scheduling plan as a result of the playoff snub.
Now that Rhule has made that decision for Nebraska and said out loud what so many others have been thinking, what's next for Alabama?
Alabama's future non-conference scheduling depends on SEC's proposed 9-game schedule
In the near future, the SEC is likely going to move to a nine-game conference schedule like the Big Ten. The money that will come with an extra conference game each year will be too much to pass up.
If and when that happens, Bryne and head coach Kalen DeBoer will likely approach the idea of canceling some of these upcoming home-and-home non-conference games they have scheduled out. Here's what the Crimson Tide has scheduled over the next decade:
2025: vs. Wisconsin, at Florida State
2026: vs. Florida State, at West Virginia
2027: vs. West Virginia, at Ohio State
2028: vs. Ohio State, at Oklahoma State
2029: vs. Oklahoma State, at Notre Dame
2030: vs. Notre Dame, at Georgia Tech
2031: vs. Georgia Tech, at Boston College
2032: vs. Arizona, at Minnesota
2033: vs. Minnesota, at Arizona
2034: vs. Boston College, at Virginia Tech
The odds of all of those games being played are slim to none. Whether that will be Alabama making the decision to cancel them, the opponent, or a mutual decision, there's little to no chance we see all of these games scheduled actually happen.
And that's unfortunate for college football fans. Marquee non-conference games have always been one of the lifebloods of the sport. Fans having the opportunity to travel to unique and historic stadiums for the first time is part of the experience.
It's just another thing that's being taken away from us as every decision that has been made the last few years in college football has been in the best interest of the almighty dollar, not the fan experience.
If Alabama chooses to lighten the load in the non-conference schedule, it would be hard to blame them. It would just be another blow to a once beautiful sport that's been bastardized by greed.