According to a report from the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Texas Tech athletic director Gerald Meyer “think[s]” that Alabama has agreed to open the 2012 season against the Red Raiders at Cowboys Stadium.
According to the Tuscaloosa News, there’s been no agreement in principle from the Tide’s end.
Alabama has been approached about playing the Red Raiders a Labor Day-weekend game, but the deal is not as close to being made as Texas Tech Athletics Director Gerald Myers indicated Monday in comments reported by the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal newspaper.UA has been searching for a high-profile, non-conference game for 2012, and a neutral-site game would best fit Alabama’s scheduling needs since the Crimson Tide could not accommodate a return game before 2015 for a home-and-home series. Alabama has a home-and-home series with Penn State in 2010-11, a home-and-home series with Georgia Tech in 2013-14 and a home-and-home agreement with Michigan State in 2016-17, leaving out-of-conference holes in the schedule for 2012 and ’15.
In fairness to Meyers, he was quoted as saying that “we haven’t gotten down to signing a contract or anything like that”, but did say that ‘Bama head coach Nick Saban “is also on board for it.”
The likely hang-up on Alabama’s end is their desire to for a match-up with Notre Dame. The news reports that “UA Director of Athletics Mal Moore hopes to meet with Notre Dame officials this summer to resume talks about a future game or series.”