Alabama football will open the 2028 season with Georgia State inside Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium, the University announced Monday.
The Crimson Tide and Panthers will be meeting for the third time in history when the two teams kick off on Saturday, Sept. 2 in Tuscaloosa. Alabama owns a 2-0 record in the previous matchups with the most recent pairing coming on Oct. 5, 2013, a 45-3 win for UA.
A start time and network designation will be announced at a later date.
Seems like pretty ho-hum news, right? Alabama plays someone like Georgia State every year, and they played each other in both 2010 and 2013.
What’s interesting, though, is that Alabama already had Ohio State, Oklahoma State, and Tennessee-Martin scheduled for 2028. Oh, and the SEC also just announced a 9 game schedule. So if my math is correct, that makes 13 games. One is going to have to give.
If I had to guess, it would be the Ohio State game. Both teams would likely mutually agree to it and blame the changing rules and SEC schedule as a reason that neither breaches the contract. Meanwhile, the Oklahoma State game is in Stillwater, so that one likely benefits the Cowboys (they’ll get all kinds of attention out of it), and Alabama would owe them a couple of million bucks.
In hoops news, Charles Bediako isn’t giving up:
Charles Bediako isn’t giving up on his quest to play for No. 17 Alabama again this season.
Bediako asked the Alabama Supreme Court to give him “interim injunctive relief” so that he can play the rest of the season with the Crimson Tide, weeks after a judge ruled he was ineligible to continue playing with the program.
Bediako had already filed an appeal to that ruling with the state’s top court. Monday’s request asks that the court allow him to continue to play with the team, as the regular season is almost over and his request would “become moot without interim relief.” Bediako has been helping the Crimson Tide as a scout team member ever since he was deemed ineligible.
Best of luck to him, of course. But I can’t wait until all of this craziness with pro players and college eligibility gets resolved.
Alabama basketball went 2-0 for the third straight week last week, extending its win streak to six games after a 2OT win at home over then-No. 20 Arkansas on Wednesday and a road win over LSU on Saturday.
The Crimson Tide climbed in the AP Poll after both wins. After being No. 25 in last week’s rankings, the most recent update on Monday afternoon brought the team up to No. 17.
The hoops squad has been clawing their way back up the rankings lately, too, jumping up to #17 after a big win over Arkansas last week. Here’s to hoping they can keep up the late-season resurgence and carry it into the post season.
Ty Simpson looked like the best quarterback in college football for much of this past season, and now the former Alabama signal caller will look to prove himself when he throws for scouts at the NFL Combine later this week.
That very forum could be the moment when Simpson reveals himself to be worthy of the first round NFL Draft pick many analysts are projecting he’ll ultimately be.
Among that cohort who are confident Simpson will pass that test includes former NFL quarterback Chase Daniel, who noted that teams are still very high on the Bama star.
“Ty Simpson is going to turn heads this week at the NFL Combine,” Daniel said in an X post. “Jets, Steelers, & Rams watching very closely.”
Simpson is very likely to be one of the most argued about players in this NFL Draft cycle. While Fernando Mendoza is the clear #1 QB, there’s a massive cliff after that with no other QBs really cementing themselves as top NFL talents. Simpson had a stretch of one season where he looked like he should be, but a faltering Alabama team and a series of injuries really meant that it only lasted for about 7 games.
Small samples sizes always make things tough – and it becomes especially polarizing when NFL teams are always desperate for a franchise-saving QB. You could watch Simpson’s run through the first half of the season and convince yourself he can be that all the time (and the reports on his injuries and problems are gnarly…. He apparently lost nearly 20 pounds going into the Rose Bowl), but you could just as fairly be extremely worried about him being a one-month wonder who will look like a pumpkin against NFL players just like he did at the end of 2026.
Finally, congrats to Bradley Bozeman for a phenomenal football career:
Former Alabama Crimson Tide offensive lineman Bradley Bozeman has officially announced his retirement from the NFL, per an announcement on social media.
A former sixth round pick in the 2018 NFL draft, Bozeman played eight seasons in the league from 2018-25 between three different teams – the Baltimore Ravens, Carolina Panthers, and Los Angeles Chargers. Bozeman played in 129 career NFL games over those eight seasons, 110 of which he started.
A 3-star prospect that few Alabama fans ever even thought would be a starter, Bozeman wound up being a starting center for a National Championship winning squad and parlayed that into a 6th round NFL draft pick. A long shot to make a roster, Bozeman once again exceeded all expectations, becoming a starter by year two and never looking back. He made $25 million dollars across his career, and was also the centerpiece for a big ESPN story that centered on his choice to live in an RV with his wife and parlayed that into a massive anti-bullying campaign.
Roll Tide, Bradley!