For the first time this season, Alabama football will play a game that is not on cable television. You'll have to stream the Crimson Tide's Saturday afternoon matchup against Mercer on SECN+ or ESPN+.
Kickoff is at 1 pm CT live from Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Alabama is fresh off of its most impressive, and most complete, performance of the season in last Saturday's 42-13 thumping of LSU in Baton Rouge. The Tide is firmly in control of its playoff destiny, and has hopefully learned its lesson from the last major victory of the season.
Following a win over Georgia in Tuscaloosa at the end of September, Alabama sleptwalked through the first couple of possessions against Vanderbilt and found itself down 13-0 before anyone could blink. They never recovered.
FCS Mercer is no Vanderbilt, but the Bears are 9-1 and a better football team than most fans are thinking.
On the call for the game will be a trio that will each be calling an Alabama game for the first time. The play-by-play will be handled by Jay Alter, the color analyst will be Rocky Boiman, and Ashley Stroehlein will handle the sideline reporting.
Alter has worked for ESPN since 2019. Before joining ESPN he worked for the Big East digital network.
Boiman played college football for Notre Dame in the early 2000s before playing in the NFL for eight years.
Stroehlein has worked for ESPN since 2022.