Oklahoma State and Alabama Schedule Home and Home in Football
STILLWATER – Oklahoma State and Alabama made a joint announcement Tuesady morning that the two schools have entered into an agreement to play home and home football games in the 2028 and 2029 college football seasons.
The basics are the Cowboys will host Alabama at Boone Pickens Stadium on Sept. 23, 2028. Oklahoma State will return the trip to Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala. on Sept. 15, 2029.
Other notable future home-and-home series for Oklahoma State are Arizona State (2022 and 2023), Arkansas (2024 and 2027 and again in 2032 and 2033), Oregon (2025 and 2026) and Nebraska (2034 and 2035).
This is a landmark day for Oklahoma State football to schedule SEC power and multiple national championship football program in Alabama. It marks the most prestigious non-conference series and possibly the most prestigious opponent in Cowboy football history.
The games also give Alabama, a program that has a losing record only to 10 current Division I schools, to even up or go ahead in the series. Oklahoma State and Mike Gundy are 1-0 against the Crimson Tide as Gundy won his first bowl game as head coach over Alabama 34-31 in the 2006 Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La. Jason Ricks kicked the winning field goal in the final minute over an Alabama team that had their future head coach Nick Saban watching in the press box of Independence Stadium that afternoon.
Division I schools that Alabama has losing records against:
Boston College (1-3), Central Florida (0-1), Minnesota (0-1), Northern Illinois (0-1), Oklahoma State (0-1), Rice (0-3), Stanford (0-1), Texas (1-7-1), TCU (2-3), and UCLA (1-2)
Mike Gundy has flipped Oklahoma State football fortunes. When he took over as head coach in 2005, the OSU football program had an all-time record of 473-492-47 (.491). With Gundy at the helm, OSU is 137-67-0 (67.2 pct.) and Oklahoma State is now 617–561–49 (.523).
Now, as Oklahoma State heads into this next decade of football the Cowboys also have some of the most premier games on tap that the program has ever scheduled.
Arizona State home in 2022 and away in 2023
Arkansas home in 2024 and 2032 and away in 2027 and 2033
Oregon away in 2025 and home in 2026
Nebraska away in 2034 and home in 2035
Since taking over at Alabama, Saban is 165-23 (. 878) (170–23 on the field), 19 bowl game appearances with 14 victories, 8 SEC West titles, 7 SEC championships, and 6 national championships. Since 2008, Saban's teams have spent all, or part of each season ranked No. 1 in national polls.
Alabama went through a period where they never scheduled Power Five opponents home and home in non-conference games. Prior to a change in policy, Alabama has played all Power Five non-conference opponents in the regular season at neutral sites such as Arlington, Texas and Atlanta, Georgia. The last time Alabama went on another school’s campus outside the SEC was Sept. 10, 2011 against Penn State. A game the Tide won 27-11.
Currently, Alabama has future home and home dates with Texas starting with a trip to Austin in 2022 and the return to Bama in 2023. They will play at Wisconsin in 2024 and host the Badgers in 2025. The Crimson Tide goes to Florida State in 2025 and hosts FSU in 2026. They travel to West Virginia in 2026 and host the Mountaineers in 2027. Then Ohio State in 2027 on the road and at home 2028 and the series against Notre Dame has been pushed back to 2029 and 2030.