Gophers add Alabama to football schedule for 2032, 2033 seasons

The Gophers have taken heat this season for a nonconference football schedule comprised of New Mexico State, Western Illinois and Colorado, teams that are a combined 1-15 and that lost to Minnesota by an aggregate score of 149-17. Clearly, critics say, the Gophers should schedule more challenging nonconference opponents.

Would Alabama be challenging enough?

The Gophers on Tuesday announced a two-game, home-and-home series with the Crimson Tide, the current gold standard when it comes to college football success. Alabama, which has won six national championships since 2009, will visit Huntington Bank Stadium on Sept. 18, 2032, and the Gophers will travel to Tuscaloosa on Sept. 17, 2033, to face the Crimson Tide at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

"We talked about elevating the level of our nonconference games, and I guess there's no better way to elevate it than that," Gophers coach P.J. Fleck said during his Tuesday radio show on KXFN-FM.

If Fleck sticks around Dinkytown, he will be a 51-year-old Gophers coach when Minnesota and Alabama begin the series a decade from now. Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban would be 80 and presumably enjoying retirement.

The series will mark the second and third meetings between Minnesota and Alabama. The Gophers beat the Crimson Tide, then coached by Mike Shula, 20-16 in the 2004 Music City Bowl in Nashville, finishing with a 7-5 record and dropping Alabama to 6-6.

Since 2007, Saban has coached Alabama and has led the Crimson Tide to those six national titles — in 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017 and 2020.

The chance for the Gophers to play Alabama came about because the Crimson Tide had to cancel a series against Oklahoma in 2032 and 2033. The Sooners are joining the Southeastern Conference and could be a league opponent for the Crimson Tide.

Talks between the schools began in March and progressed quickly between Gophers athletic director Mark Coyle and Alabama AD Greg Byrne. Dusty Clements, Gophers deputy AD, said the contract was finalized in late summer.

"It's a cool series between the two preeminent conferences in college football," Clements said. "Alabama's probably looking forward to a trip up north … and I know our fans will be excited about heading to one of the great places in college football."

College football schedules are made years, if not decades, in advance, and this year's Gophers schedule showed how a team that might look like a challenging opponent when a contract is signed might not be at that level once the game is played. In 2016, when Minnesota scheduled the series with Colorado, Tracy Claeys was the Gophers coach, and the Buffaloes were on their way to winning the Pac-12's North Division. By the time the two-game series was played in 2021 and 2022, Fleck had taken over at Minnesota and the Buffaloes program was in decline.

Future nonconference schedules for the Gophers have a mix of Power Five, Group of Five and an occasional FCS opponent. Highlights include three home-and-home series against Power Five opponents: North Carolina (there in 2023, here in 2024), California (there in 2025, here in 2028) and Mississippi State (here in 2026, there in 2027).

"This is clearly going to be a noteworthy moment for our campus," Clements said of Alabama's visit. "We're excited that Gopher athletics can propel the university into the limelight."

The Big Ten has yet to announce its conference schedules beyond this season. Southern California and UCLA begin Big Ten play in the fall of 2024.

Current Gophers players applauded the addition of Alabama to the schedule.

"Honestly, that's awesome," safety Tyler Nubin said. "I can't wait to see it."

"Me and Tanner, we'll be excited for that game — playing in it," Gophers fifth-year senior linebacker Mariano Sori-Marin joked, referring to sixth-year senior quarterback Tanner Morgan.