We all remember Jan. 7, 2013.

It was a BCS National Championship for the ages. Well, it was if you were an Alabama fan.

A 42-14 beatdown of Notre Dame gave Nick Saban the opportunity to flex his muscles and show the world that his program was an unstoppable force. The Fighting Irish couldn’t stay on the field with the Tide, and while both were college football blue bloods, the latter was clearly a step above.

That memory is still fresh in our minds. That’s why when TideSports.com reported that the schools were in negotiations to set up a home-and-home series, college football personalities like Paul Finebaum said, “I like it, I really do. Alabama should play Notre Dame all the time — it’s an easy win.”

That might be true. Even Notre Dame’s best team of the 21st century couldn’t stack up with Alabama on a neutral field a few short years ago.

But my reaction was different. I didn’t harken back to that BCS game because the reported scenario would have one key new ingredient that’s relatively unfamiliar for Alabama in the Saban era.

“Home-and-home series.”

Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

You know, that thing when you actually play in a road atmosphere against a Power 5 team in non-conference play. Not when you go to Atlanta or Dallas for a neutral site game like Alabama did 8 of the past 10 seasons. Don’t get me wrong. Alabama’s non-conference scheduling is better than most.

But Alabama hasn’t played in a home-and-home series since it traveled to Penn State in 2011 (Alabama hosted Penn State in 2010). The Tide also traveled to Duke in 2010. As far as home-and-home series are concerned, that’s it for the Saban era.

Why?

Is it because Alabama hasn’t had to travel outside of its geographical comfort zone to play quality opponents in non-conference play? Probably. It’s about time that changed.

Let’s not pretend that Alabama made a legitimate effort to leave its region of the country unless it was for a neutral-site game in Texas (Dallas is still only an 8.5-hour drive from Tuscaloosa). The Georgia Tech home-and-home series reportedly was postponed and canceled by both schools for different reasons. Still, Atlanta is basically Tuscaloosa East.

Let’s not forget that it was Alabama who canceled the home-and-home series with Michigan State in 2016 and 2017 “for business reasons,” as Saban later explained.

“For business reasons, we have played neutral-site games to start the season,” Saban said before the 2015 College Football Playoff matchup vs. Michigan State, according to the Lansing State Journal. “And when you play a home-and-home – which we played Penn State home-and-home a few years ago — when you play at home you do really well (financially), when you play away you don’t do very well. When you play a neutral-site (game), you do very well every year.

“We wanted to try to play the series, instead of home-and-home, at neutral sites. And we had other opportunities to play other teams at neutral sites. So from a business perspective, our administration chose to do that. It was certainly nothing personal. And not that it wouldn’t have been a great series, I think it would have been.”

Saban could stand behind that stance all he wants. He made a good point that plenty of other programs stood by. Why make money every other year when you can just make money every year?

That brings me back to the “why.” Why would Alabama suddenly be interested in scheduling a home-and-home series and deviating from the business-savvy neutral site matchups?

I have a theory. It starts with a “G” and ends with “eorgia.”

If you recall, last year the Georgia-Notre Dame game in South Bend was the most influential game in college football. Well, it was at least for the first 2 months of the season. It gave the Dawgs the best non-conference win because it was on the road against a Playoff contender.

Alabama, on the other hand, was left without a quality non-conference win. It didn’t matter that the neutral-site showdown with Florida State was considered “the greatest opener in college football history.” When the Seminoles fell apart, a neutral-site win against a mediocre FSU team didn’t help Alabama’s Playoff résumé at all. The Tide almost didn’t have “a loss to give.” Meanwhile, Georgia got pummeled at Auburn and still had a much clearer path to the Playoff even though it played in the inferior SEC East.

That was because of Georgia’s Notre Dame win.

I’m connecting dots here, but I think Saban recognized that. I think he saw three other Playoff teams (Georgia, Clemson and Oklahoma) all win big non-conference showdowns in games that were part of home-and-home series. They all had much easier paths than Alabama — staying alive for a conference title helped, too — despite the fact that they also had one loss.

Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports

I don’t think the timing of this is any surprise. Alabama canceled the Michigan State series in 2013 because it wasn’t sure if the SEC was going to switch to a 9-game conference schedule after the new Playoff system was announced (somehow, that still hasn’t happened). Saban wanted the best path to a Playoff berth, and combined with the business aspect, the neutral-site showdowns were the best option for Alabama. I think after seeing 4 years of the Playoff system evolve, Saban’s thinking has evolved.

Saban doesn’t want to have to rely on the SEC producing several top-25 teams to take care of Alabama’s strength of schedule in case an FSU-like collapse happens to the program’s non-conference opponent. He saw what good that did the Tide last year. If his team really is the best in America, it should be able to go up to a place like Notre Dame and pull out a monumental win to give it a clear résumé booster that one conference loss can withstand.

Georgia did it last year, and in the program’s first trip north of the Mason-Dixon Line since 1965 — unless you want to count Colorado in 2010 — the Dawgs took over South Bend. It was a red and black spectacle.

Saban knows that Alabama fans would do the same. It would captivate the college football world, and maybe even more than watching Alabama and Florida State in Atlanta. I mean, we can get a matchup like that every bowl season. As great as neutral-site games are for the sport, there’s something about watching a true home-and-home series among two college football powers that can’t be replicated at a neutral site.

Besides, in what other sport does a team never have to leave its own region of the country to play a game? Alabama is long overdue to go beyond driving distance to play a regular-season game. The last time that happened — 2011 at Penn State — Alabama won a national title.

Who knows? Maybe Alabama will set up an “easy win” at Notre Dame en route to another national title.

If it can make Alabama’s path to a Playoff berth easier than what it had to endure in 2017, it’s only a matter of time before Saban signs on the dotted line.