Alabama continues to schedule more quality home-and-home football series, announcing Tuesday that the Crimson Tide will play at Oklahoma in 2032 and host the Sooners the following season.
The two storied programs have combined for 18 Associated Press national championships, with Alabama having won 11 and Oklahoma seven. The Tide defeated the Sooners 45-34 this past December at the Orange Bowl national semifinal.
"We played an exciting game with OU this past season in the Orange Bowl, and matchups like this are so important to college football," Tide coach Nick Saban said in a university release. "It is not only great for the fans, but our team always enjoys challenges like these outside of SEC play."
Alabama has been at the forefront of standout neutral-site showdowns in recent seasons, having played in five Chick-fil-A Kickoff Games in Atlanta as well as three matchups in Arlington, Texas, and opening last season in Orlando. The Tide will continue that trend the next three seasons, opening their 2019 schedule against Duke in Atlanta, opening 2020 against Southern California in Arlington and opening 2021 versus Miami in Atlanta.
After that, however, Alabama has lined up home-and-home series with Texas (2022-23), West Virginia (2026-27), Notre Dame (2028-29) and now Oklahoma.
"We've worked diligently at adding high-caliber home-and-home series to our future football nonconference schedules," Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne said. "Alabama and Oklahoma are two of the most storied programs in college football history, and this certainly will give both teams and fan bases a tremendous opportunity during the regular season."
Diggs pumped
Alabama held its 13th of 15 practices Tuesday and will practice again Thursday before Saturday afternoon's A-Day game.
It will be the first game of any kind for Trevon Diggs since the senior defensive back broke his foot last October in the win at Arkansas. Diggs played in six games and had racked up a career-best seven tackles against the Razorbacks before his injury.
"It feels great to be back," Diggs said Tuesday in a news conference. "I haven't played in six months, and now that I'm back into things, it feels great."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.