Alabama now knows when it will head to Knoxville for one of the SEC’s most familiar grudge games.
The Crimson Tide will play Tennessee at 2:30 p.m. CT on October 17, the SEC announced Monday.
The matchup had been listed as a flex game, so the league had left room for it to land in either the afternoon or night window. Instead, it settled into ABC’s afternoon slot.
That date comes after Alabama gets through a much bigger test first: a Saturday meeting with undefeated Georgia. The Tide are set to host the No.
2 Bulldogs at Bryant-Denny Stadium at 6:30 p.m. CT on ABC, with Alabama looking to avenge last season’s SEC championship game loss.
When Alabama does turn to Tennessee, it will be walking into a place that has not been kind on recent trips. The Crimson Tide lost a thriller in 2022 in Nick Saban’s final game in the stadium, and Kalen DeBoer also came away with a loss in the most recent visit there.
Tennessee enters this year’s Third Saturday in October with just one defeat. That loss came at home to No. 1 Texas, which left Knoxville with a win and the only blemish on the Volunteers’ record so far.
The October matchup will also be the second time this season that an Alabama team has gone to Neyland Stadium. Auburn lost there 24-14 on Saturday.
The schedules around the game tilt differently for both teams, too. Alabama faces the tougher assignment before the rivalry game, while Tennessee heads to Arkansas to face what is likely the SEC’s worst team this year.
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Georgia checked in at No. 5 after its win over Vanderbilt, which leaves the Bulldogs with some ground to make up compared with the Tide at the top. Texas and Ole Miss both had byes in Week 5, so their standing stayed in place for now, but the bigger storyline from an Alabama perspective is clear: the Tide have the top spot, and the SEC race still has plenty of movement left. [Read more 🡒]
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Even with that kind of return, Crowell has not been getting a heavy workload lately, which has only sharpened the debate about how the Crimson Tide should divide carries. Alabama has other backs involved too, with Daniel Hill and Trae'shawn Brown also factoring in, but the question now is whether Crowell has done enough to earn a bigger role as the season moves along. [Read more 🡒]