Nick Saban is now in his 15th season as the head coach at Alabama, and in those 15 years he has only taken his Crimson Tide team down to Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville one time. Not by choice of course. As Saban pointed out on Wednesday, he has no control over the SEC scheduling.
That one trip to "the Swamp" in 2011, a place Alabama safety Jordan Battle on Tuesday called one of the "greatest stadiums in history," was a 38-10 Alabama win.
Florida has played in Tuscaloosa in 2010 and 2014, and the two teams have met in the SEC Championship five times since 2008. But during Wednesday's SEC coaches teleconference, both Saban and Florida head coach Dan Mullen expressed interest in the SEC playing more conference games each season, allowing for more of these type of matchups to occur.
"I think the league creating more of these games is really good for the fans, good for the players and good for the conference of creating these type of games a little bit more where you get this opportunity," Mullen said. "I mean I didn’t know the last time they were here was in 2011. That seems like a long time between playing a conference team at home, a long time between games.”
Mullen pointed out the last time a rotating West team came into Gainesville, Auburn in 2019, and how much excitement it created for both fan bases and teams.
Part of the reason it has been so long since Alabama went to Florida is that 2011 was the last season before the SEC expanded and added Texas A&M and Missouri, which dramatically altered the conference rotations then in place.
Saban has long been a proponent of expanding to nine conference games but has not received much support around the league. Currently, each team plays the six teams in their division and one permanent cross-division rival (Tennessee for Alabama, LSU for Florida), which only leaves room for one rotating opponent from the opposite division per year.
"They do the best job they can with the situation that we're in, but I've always said it would be great if every player on your team got to play every school in the SEC in his career, and with the present format that's just not possible," Saban said.
With the addition of Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC and conference realignment across the landscape of college football, changes in scheduling are once again inevitable. However, for the time being, both Mullen and Saban agree that a decade is too long between trips to the Swamp for the Crimson Tide.
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September 16, 2021 at 01:17AM
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Nick Saban, Dan Mullen Want to See More Alabama-Florida Type Matchups in Regular Season - Bama Maven
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