If you’re a modestly successful SEC program, chances are life is good. The stands are filled, the money from TV deals is rolling in and you’re a mainstay on the college football landscape. If there’s one big challenge though, it might be on the future schedules front where teams are running into a case of high demand and low supply driving up the price of doing business.
Case in point? According to former ESPN reporter/future Stadium insider Brett McMurphy, Alabama is backing up the Brinks truck to pay Utah State some $1.91 million to bring the Aggies to Tuscaloosa. That is, as you see below, quite a bit of dough.
Sources: Alabama adds 2022 home game w/Utah State. Bama will pay Aggies $1.91 million, 3rd highest amount ever for a visiting team. Florida paid Colorado State $2M (as part of McElwain buyout) for 2018 game & Auburn paid Tulane $1.937M for 2019 game
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) May 2, 2018
The Crimson Tide have a pretty tried-and-true scheduling philosophy of one neutral site game (or the occasional home-and-home) with a major program, an FCS foe later in the year before the Iron Bowl and a pair of home games against Group of Five opponents. It’s that latter aspect that is getting more and more difficult to fill and like many of their SEC and Power Five brethren, prices are shooting up correspondingly. The Mountain West school seems like the latest to take advantage as part of this type of guarantee game.
Alabama and Utah State did have a two-game series in 2004 and 2005 that were both convincing Tide wins but it seems like the third time around will come with a much higher price tag for what will likely be the same result. Perhaps the bigger question is if Nick Saban will still be leading the team when 2022 rolls around.