I give Alabama credit for finally facing its fear.

Wait, what does Alabama fear? The Midwest, silly. For the past decade, the Crimson Tide treated that region of the country like Scooby-Doo treated a haunted mansion.

Alabama announced this week that it agreed to a home-and-home against Wisconsin in 2024 and 2025. When the Crimson Tide make the trip to Madison in 2024, it’ll mark the first time since 2011 that the team played a nonconference road game north of the Mason-Dixon line.

On that September day in 2011, Nck Saban’s eventual national title team went up to Happy Valley and beat the Fightin’ Joe Paternos. (Am I allowed to say that?) And ever since then, here’s the list of Alabama’s nonconference games away from Bryant-Denny Stadium until 2024:

  • 2012: vs. Michigan (at AT&T Stadium in Dallas)
  • 2013: vs. Virginia Tech (at Georgia Dome in Atlanta)
  • 2014: vs. West Virginia (at Georgia Dome in Atlanta)
  • 2015: vs. Wisconsin (at AT&T Stadium in Dallas)
  • 2016: vs. USC (at AT&T Stadium in Dallas)
  • 2017: vs. Florida State (at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta)
  • 2018: vs. Louisville (at Camping World Stadium in Orlando)
  • 2019: vs. Duke (at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta)
  • 2020: vs. USC (at AT&T Stadium in Dallas)
  • 2021: vs. Miami (at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta)
  • 2022: at Texas
  • 2023: at South Florida

Hey, I’m just happy that Alabama is ditching the neutral-site deal in a couple years. You know, considering the most northern game it played/will play in that stretch was in … Atlanta?

Not mentioned in that group was the home-and-home that Alabama was supposed to have with Saban’s former team, Michigan State. But Alabama canceled that series, which prevented the team from making the trip to East Lansing in 2017.

Why did Alabama cancel? Fear of the Midwest, obviously.

(Actually, it was business reasons. Alabama did quite well with the neutral-site money during the 2010s decade, and it got to face a quality opponent without visiting a road venue. But it’s more fun to say that Saban was haunted by his past and he got cold feet when thinking about returning to Michigan State.)

Seriously, though. College football is the only sport in which a team can be a powerhouse for a decade without ever traveling to an entire half of the country. It’s bizarre. Nobody held it against Alabama that it avoided the Midwest like I avoid Skyline Chili when I travel through Ohio.

I’ve written about the subject multiple times, but Alabama’s home-and-home scheduling frenzy the past year seems to be part of the belief that the Playoff will expand to 8 teams in the 2020s, and that there will be more margin for error for contenders. Either that or Alabama is just bored with dominating these neutral-site openers and is in search of a new challenge.

And for what it’s worth, Alabama did agree to a home-and-home with Notre Dame in April of 2018. That trip to South Bend won’t be until 2028, though. And yes, it’ll be in September. Of course.

That’s the thing about this matchup with Wisconsin in 2024. It’ll be Sept. 14. Snow is at least another 3 weeks away. Does Alabama think it snows in Big Ten country in late-September? I’m only half kidding about that.

What I do know is that there’s a better chance of Saban shaving his head than Alabama making a trip to Wisconsin after September.

I’ve said forever that Alabama can beat any team at any time in any weather. In fact, I’d argue a little winter dusting would play to the Crimson Tide’s strength in the trenches. But we never even get to think about that possibility because Alabama’s yearly neutral-site nonconference headliners are all played in domes in the South in August or September.

The irony of the timing of this announcement is that it comes on the heels of Saban saying that Alabama tries to schedule 2 Power 5 opponents every year. I don’t think he’s lying, despite the fact that only happened once in a 10-year stretch. But I do think he has been stubborn about where and when these games are played. I don’t buy the belief that Big Ten teams are hanging up the phone on Alabama when they call and offer a home-and-home.

This all goes back to the Michigan State cancelation. Alabama didn’t have to have that home-and-home. Why? Other SEC contenders weren’t scheduling home-and-homes above the Mason-Dixon line. From 2012-20, here are the SEC contenders who actually did that (Sorry, Mizzou and Vandy. Going to Purdue doesn’t count.)

  • 2014: Auburn at Kansas State
  • 2015: LSU at Syracuse
  • 2017: Georgia at Notre Dame

Yes, LSU fans. I know that the Tigers played Wisconsin at Lambeau Field in the 2016 opener. You can count that if you’d like.

But that and the Georgia-Notre Dame home-and-home felt like the only real headliner battle of that group.

Of course nobody was going to say Alabama was being ridiculous for not heading north. The other SEC contenders weren’t, so why should they?

Now, though, that’s out the window. For the first time in the Saban era, the program is truly embracing the “we’ll play anybody, anywhere” philosophy. Good. I hope others will follow suit.

At a time when everyone is trying to figure out how to solve college football’s attendance problem, perhaps a yearly matchup like that would move the needle more than playing at 1 of 3 neutral-site venues for an opener.

I’m glad that Alabama finally realized that going to Big Ten country isn’t so scary. On second thought, does Alabama know about “Jump Around?” When Camp Randall starts swaying because of 80,000 jumping fans, it’s equal parts awesome and terrifying.

But nobody tell Saban and Co. about that. We don’t want them backing out of another trip up North.