The University of Alabama football team will play a home-and-home series against the Arizona Wildcats of the PAC-12 Conference in 2032 and 2033, Alabama announced on Thursday.
“The addition of Arizona is another example of the commitment our administration has to creating outstanding schedules for many years to come,” Alabama head coach Nick Saban said in a release. “Arizona is a tremendous football program and the opportunity to play this type of competition only makes our program stronger while providing a lot of excitement for both fan bases.”
The two games agreed to by the universities continue a scheduling trend that has seen Alabama schedule 19 high-level non-conference in home-and-home series on its non-conference schedules over the next 12 years. Eight of those series are against Power 5 conference opponents.
The Crimson Tide has announced series against Texas (2022-23), South Florida (a 2-for-1 series with a home-and-home in 2023-24 and an additional game in Tuscaloosa in 2026), Wisconsin (2024-25), Florida State (2025-26) West Virginia (2026-27), Notre Dame (2028-29), Georgia Tech (2030-31), Oklahoma (2032-33), Arizona (2032-33) and Virginia Tech (2034-35) over the last 18 months.
With the series overlap with Oklahoma, Alabama would alternate home sites in each year, playing OU in Norman and hosting Arizona in Tuscaloosa in 2032, then traveling to Tucson while hosting Oklahoma in 2033.
Alabama and Arizona have never played each other in college football. Although the Crimson Tide has participated in post-season play in the state of Arizona, the planned trip to Tucson would be Alabama’s first-regular season game there.
Greg Byrne, Alabama’s athletics director, was the AD at Arizona from 2010 until 2017,when he accepted the job in Tuscaloosa.
Reach Cecil Hurt at cecil@tidesports.com or via Twitter @cecilhurt
