What is Alabama football‘s record against Group of Five teams through the years?
Typically, games between college football blue-bloods like the Crimson Tide and non-power conference schools follow a predictable script: Alabama, like other SEC and Big Ten teams, schedule a one-off contract game against an opponent from the Sun Belt, Conference USA, American, MAC or Mountain West conferences, with a not inconsiderable sum paid out to said opponent.
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Alabama, like Ohio State, Michigan, Georgia and others, then typically beats the opponent in question. The home team fans head home happy, another win under the belt before the next matchup in conference play.
Things don’t always go according to plan, though. Under Nick Saban, Alabama didn’t have many scares against independent or Group of Five teams — minus one jarring exception.
Saban’s first season in Tuscaloosa in 2007, in which the Crimson Tide finished 7-6 overall after a 6-2 start, included one of the more shocking losses that Alabama fans are still loathe to recall. It happened against the Tide’s opponent this Saturday: the UL Monroe Warhawks (or Louisiana-Monroe).
Alabama committed four turnovers, including two costly interceptions from quarterback John Parker Wilson (both to ULM cornerback Quintez Secka), and the Warhawks stunned the Crimson Tide in a 21-14 upset.
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While the term “Group of Five” wasn’t coined until the dawn of the four-team College Football Playoff, UL Monroe remains the last team from a non-Power Four conference to hand the Crimson Tide a loss at any point during the regular season; Alabama fell to Utah, then a member of the Mountain West, in the 2008 Sugar Bowl.
The Warhawks weren’t the first team to beat Alabama in the regular season, though. Southern Miss and a young quarterback named Brett Favre beat Gene Stallings in his first game as Alabama head coach in the 1990 season opener at Legion Field. Alabama wouldn’t lose to a non-power conference school again until Stallings’ successor took over in 1997.
Louisiana Tech, an independent at the time, memorably stunned the Crimson Tide in back-to-back meetings in 1997 and ’99 with Mike DuBose as coach. From 2000-2007, Alabama lost four times to non-power conference opponents under DuBose and Mike Shula.
Southern Miss and Central Florida (another independent at the time) tamed the Tide as part a disastrous 3-8 season in 2000, and Northern Illinois and Hawaii both beat Alabama in 2003 — the latter in a de facto “bowl game” when the Crimson Tide were barred from postseason play.
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After Saban’s 2007 team lost to Louisiana-Monroe, the Crimson Tide have won every game against non-power conference opponents in the regular season. That may seem like small potatoes, but it’s a claim that Alabama’s chief rivals — Auburn in 2023, Tennessee in 2019, LSU in 2017 and Georgia in 2011 — can’t make.
Here’s a breakdown of Alabama’s record against non-power conference opponents through the years.
Alabama football record vs non-power conference teams since 2000
Results are from the regular season only and do not include games against FCS opponents or bowl games against Group of Five teams like the 2021 Cotton Bowl win over Cincinnati, then a member of the American Athletic Conference, or the 2008 Sugar Bowl loss to Utah.
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Similarly, the results include games against independent teams at the time, as well as teams that had yet to join a Power Four conference (the Houston Cougars, for example).
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2020: conference-only schedule
Overall record: 49 wins, 5 losses.
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This article originally appeared on Roll Tide Wire: Alabama football’s record against Group of Five schools
