Ad Disclosure
Alabama and Auburn meet in late November every season in football in the Iron Bowl, which is arguably the greatest rivalry in college football.
The 2 schools have both been good in basketball at various times and even at the same time. But it’s never been like it is now.
And on Saturday, the Tigers and Crimson Tide will clash in the biggest basketball game between the longtime football rivals. The subplots are endless, and there will be big-time history happening in Tuscaloosa when the basketball behemoths (weird to say that) tip things off at 4 p.m. ET on ESPN. And be sure to use the best betting apps to track the line movement leading up to Saturday.
It will be the first No. 1 vs. No. 2 AP matchup in SEC history and, incredibly, college basketball’s first since 2008. That’s a lot of seasons ago, and there will be a lot at stake at Coleman Coliseum when Bruce Pearl’s Tigers and Nate Oats’s Crimson Tide play for state and college basketball supremacy.
Not surprisingly, ESPN College GameDay has jumped at the chance to be at this historic game. The show previously announced that it will hold the pregame show on Saturday morning in Tuscaloosa for the first 1 vs. 2 game since Tennessee played Memphis in 2008. On Saturday, it will be Alabama and Auburn finally giving college basketball another 1 vs. 2 showdown.
Another piece of history for Saturday comes because Alabama is the new No. 1 in the Coaches poll. The last time an AP No. 1 team faced a Coaches Poll No. 1 team was in 2016, when Kansas (the AP No. 1) faced Oklahoma (the Coaches’ No. 1). That game produced a triple-overtime thriller, and fans can only hope a similar showdown ensues this weekend.
By Saturday night, somebody in the state of Alabama will have bragging rights, and it will have absolutely nothing to do with the Iron Bowl’s football version.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
