Kickoff Time, TV Channel Announced For Alabama’s 2026 Season Opener

We are 116 days away from kickoff for the Alabama Crimson Tide's season opener against East Carolina! We now know what time Alabama will kick off against East Carolina on September 5, with Stewart Mandel reporting that Alabama's 2026 season opener will kick off at 11:00 a.m. CT, Noon ET.

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Alabama has faced East Carolina once before, with the Crimson Tide defeating the Pirates 23-22 at Legion Field in 1998. East Carolina has a new quarterback, with Mitch Griffis and Emory Williams competing for the starting quarterback job. Griffis began his college football career in 2020 with Wake Forest, with another stop at Texas Tech. Williams is a senior who transferred to ECU from Miami.

East Carolina is the only Alabama game for the 2026 season that currently has a television channel and kickoff time, but according to Chuck Dunlap, the communication director of the SEC, the TV schedule and kickoff times for the first three weeks of the season will be released on Wednesday, May 27.

2026 Alabama Football Schedule

Vs. East Carolina, 11 a.m. (ABC)
At Kentucky, TBD
Vs. Florida State, TBD
Vs. South Carolina, TBD
At Mississippi State, TBD
Vs. Georgia, TBD
At Tennessee, TBD
Vs. Texas A&M, TBD (Homecoming)
BYE WEEK
At LSU, TBD
At Vanderbilt, TBD
Vs. UT-Chatanooga, TBD
Vs. Auburn, TBD

Wyatt Fulton is the Tide 100.9 DME and Brand Manager, primarily covering Alabama Crimson Tide football and men's basketball. For more Crimson Tide coverage, follow Wyatt on X (Formerly known as Twitter) at @FultonW_.