Ohio State Athletic Director Quiets Rumors of Alabama Home-and-Home Cancellation

Rumors swirled last week about a potential cancellation between Alabama and Ohio State for the two teams' home-and-home series, which is set to start when Alabama travels to Columbus, Ohio, on September 18 for the currently scheduled second game of the 2027 season. The Buckeyes are set to make the return trip to Tuscaloosa the following season on September 9. While no official cancellation was announced, many assumed it was a foregone conclusion that it would inevitably be cancelled after the SEC moved to nine conference games, beginning in the 2026 season.

Get our free mobile app

As college football legend Lee Corso always says, "Not so fast, my friend!" In a recent interview with Joey Kaufman of the Columbus Dispatch, Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork said that he expects the home-and-home series between the top two programs in college football history to be played, despite recent speculation over a potential cancellation.

"No indication they want to get out of anything," Bjork said.

Bjork was then asked if he wanted the series to be played against the Crimson Tide.

"We should never be afraid to play anybody. We're Ohio State. People probably should be afraid to play us, right?" Bjork asked. "Then you have to use data. When we host these kinds of games, from a revenue standpoint and attention to the program, the lift is monumental. For the Texas game, we were basically around $19 million in ticket sales. For a nonconference game against a Group of Five opponent, we're $7 million to $9 million.

"Those games mean so much just from attention, revenue, TV matchups. And you test yourself. We tested ourselves against Texas, and we walked out of there with a win. It's like, 'Ok, let's go now, we know what we have.' To me, that was a great launching point because you won it. If you lose it, you're still in the game."

Bjork then pushed back on the idea that the Longhorns' loss to Ohio State was what kept them out of the College Football Playoff, citing Texas's upset loss to Florida as the reason, while questioning if we have enough of a sample size to justify cancelling marquee non-conference games.

"Texas could have been in the playoff, but they had a bad loss. I don't know if there's enough data yet from a College Football Playoff standpoint to say we should or shouldn't play those games."

With the now-seemingly unlikely cancellation of Alabama's home-and-home with Ohio State, the Crimson Tide will need to cancel one of its other three nonconference games set for the 2028 season. The Crimson Tide currently has four nonconference games scheduled for 2028: finishing the second half of the Ohio State home-and-home, a matchup with UT Martin, and the start of a home-and-home with Oklahoma State. Alabama announced on Monday a game with Georgia State, scheduled to be the 2028 home opener on September 2.

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_.