Alabama playing BYU in the season opener would be awesome for college football fans

As teams are having to readjust their schedule, the possibility of an Alabama vs BYU opener is very exciting. 

On July 9, the Big Ten announced that its fall sports season would only include inter-conference play, including for college football. Just a day later, the Pac-12 announced the same plan.

As a result of two major conferences eliminating non-conference games, Independent teams, such as BYU and Notre Dame, have had a large swath of their season taken away.

But as of now, the SEC, ACC, and Big 12 are all still planning on playing games outside of their respective conferences. Of course, this could be subject to change when those leagues announce their plans, which is expected in the next week. This gives independent teams the opportunity to salvage some games, for the time being, by scheduling schools from these three conferences.

One of the games that are reportedly in the works is Alabama vs BYU, which would be the season openers for each team.

Independent BYU needs to replace lost games on their schedule and Alabama needs to replace the lost game with USC.

When the Big Ten and the Pac-12 eliminated all non-conference games, BYU lost seven games out of its 12-game schedule.

Originally, the Cougars were slated to take on their arch-rival Utah Utes on the road in their season opener, but with Utah being a Pac-12 team that game is no longer possible.

The same goes for the Crimson Tide who were supposed to begin the season with a matchup against USC.

Now, according to reports, there is a “strong possibility” the Cougars being the Week 1 opponent for Bama, but still hinges on the SEC keeping its non-conference schedule intact, as well as a season occurring in the first place.

While BYU certainly would be an underdog vs. Alabama, there is more potential for an upset than the typical non-conference games that the Tide play. The Cougars have gone 7-6 in 2018 and 2019, but have been able to upset some Power 5 teams recently, including Wisconsin in 2018 and USC last year. Plus, it would pit two of the biggest fan bases against each other and would deliver massive TV ratings if the game was on ABC or ESPN.

With the season in jeopardy and schedules in limbo, Alabama playing BYU would be a win for both programs and for college football fans.

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