Alabama football felt disrespected by South Carolina’s 2025 schedule choice.

The dynamic of college football scheduling can be a sensitive topic, especially when it comes to rivalries, conference matchups, and the occasional snub that one team feels against another. For Alabama football, a program that prides itself on its history, tradition, and competitiveness, the issue of respect is one that’s often at the forefront of its culture. When South Carolina made a particular scheduling decision for the 2025 season, Alabama felt disrespected and overlooked.

While college football teams rarely face each other outside their conference unless in bowl games or special non-conference showdowns, scheduling choices can play a pivotal role in how programs are perceived. Alabama, a school with a long tradition of excellence and dominance under Nick Saban, felt slighted by South Carolina’s 2025 scheduling move for several reasons. This controversy, rooted in perceptions of fairness, legacy, and conference rivalries, led to a brewing conflict between the two programs. But the issue isn’t just about one game on a schedule — it’s about deeper concerns regarding respect in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and the implications it may have for future interactions in the league.

The Scheduling Controversy

The controversy began when South Carolina, a program that has long been seen as a middle-tier team within the SEC, made the decision to schedule an out-of-conference game in 2025 against a school many felt should not be prioritized over an SEC heavyweight like Alabama. South Carolina had the option of scheduling Alabama during the regular season as part of their SEC slate but opted instead to fill the game slot with a non-conference opponent that was seen as less of a challenge than the Crimson Tide.

For many in the Alabama football program and the SEC community, this scheduling decision was more than just an unfortunate choice. Alabama has a long-standing rivalry with South Carolina, and many within the Alabama camp believe that every opportunity to face their fellow conference teams should be treated with the utmost respect. The decision to potentially overlook Alabama — a team that had consistently dominated the SEC for over a decade — was viewed by many as a slight.

Alabama football’s sense of pride comes not only from its on-field accomplishments but also from the reverence in which it’s held throughout the conference. South Carolina’s scheduling decision felt like a missed opportunity to engage with one of the SEC’s most prestigious programs. Alabama’s coaching staff, players, and fans felt that South Carolina was intentionally avoiding the challenge of facing Alabama and choosing a matchup they believed was easier.

The Historical Context of Alabama-South Carolina Matchups

To understand why Alabama felt so disrespected by South Carolina’s scheduling move, it’s important to put the situation into historical context. Alabama and South Carolina have been longstanding conference rivals, playing each other regularly in the SEC. Although Alabama has been a dominant force within the SEC for most of the 21st century, South Carolina has developed a solid football program with competitive teams, particularly under the leadership of former head coach Steve Spurrier. However, the historical performance gap between the two teams has typically been significant, with Alabama often emerging as the more powerful and successful program.

Since the SEC expanded and formed divisions, Alabama has been a regular fixture in the SEC Championship Game, while South Carolina has typically been an upper-mid-tier team, occasionally challenging for bowl eligibility or competing in the middle of the division standings. Despite this gap in overall performance, the matchups between these two teams have always carried significance, particularly because of the fierce competition in the SEC.

As part of the tradition in the SEC, each program holds a certain level of respect for other schools in the conference, and part of that tradition is scheduling games that challenge teams to prove their mettle within the league. For a program like Alabama, the challenge of facing any SEC team is taken seriously, but the acknowledgment of an opponent’s strength is equally important. Alabama saw South Carolina’s decision as a way of avoiding that challenge and, by extension, disrespecting the very ethos that the SEC is known for — toughness, competition, and mutual respect.

Alabama’s Perspective on Respect and Scheduling

Alabama football, under Nick Saban’s leadership, has long embodied a philosophy of facing the toughest competition head-on. The Crimson Tide’s success has been built not only on recruiting elite talent but also on embracing the challenge of facing other top-tier SEC teams year in and year out. Alabama’s football program has historically not shied away from tough games, with a schedule that regularly includes challenging opponents from within the SEC and beyond.

However, in the case of South Carolina’s 2025 scheduling decision, Alabama saw a different kind of approach — one that didn’t align with the competitive spirit that defines the SEC. Alabama felt that the move was not just a reflection of South Carolina’s football program but a broader commentary on the current landscape of college football. In a time when conferences and programs are seeking to elevate their profiles, South Carolina’s decision to schedule a game against a lower-profile opponent over Alabama was viewed as a lack of respect for the tradition of the SEC.

The timing of this decision was particularly important as well. In recent years, SEC programs have been keen to schedule marquee matchups, build their brand, and strengthen their profiles in the College Football Playoff (CFP) era. For Alabama, the 2025 season was shaping up to be another highly anticipated year, with the program hoping to continue its dominance and contend for yet another national championship. South Carolina’s move to schedule a non-conference opponent instead of Alabama seemed, in their eyes, to undermine the importance of facing the conference’s premier teams.

This scheduling issue quickly escalated beyond a simple football decision. For Alabama, it was about the overall culture of college football, the competitiveness of the SEC, and the recognition that Alabama’s legacy should be honored, not bypassed. It was not just a snub to the current team but a dismissal of the history that the program had built over decades.

The SEC’s Role in the Disrespect Debate

The SEC is one of the most competitive conferences in all of college football, and every team within the league is expected to maintain a certain level of competitiveness. While not every SEC team is as consistently successful as Alabama, there is an underlying expectation that all teams in the conference — especially those with strong histories like South Carolina — will approach their scheduling with a sense of fairness and competition.

The scheduling decisions of conference teams are often influenced by a variety of factors, including strength of schedule, national television exposure, and playoff considerations. For Alabama, the decision by South Carolina to avoid scheduling them in favor of a lesser opponent felt like an insult not only to the program but to the conference’s competitive balance.

Alabama’s belief that South Carolina was avoiding the challenge speaks to a broader issue within the SEC. The league is known for its high level of competition, and teams are expected to go toe-to-toe with each other year in and year out. By choosing to schedule a non-conference opponent rather than facing Alabama, South Carolina was, in Alabama’s eyes, not fulfilling its duty to the SEC’s competitive spirit. In this context, the disrespect wasn’t just personal — it was a matter of principle. The SEC was meant to be a battleground where each team tested itself against the best, and Alabama was a major part of that narrative.

The Fallout and Future Implications

The aftermath of South Carolina’s scheduling choice didn’t end with Alabama simply feeling slighted. For Alabama, the decision was seen as a sign of a larger shift in how the SEC might approach scheduling in the future. Could more teams start avoiding Alabama, seeking to create less challenging schedules to improve their chances at the CFP or bowl eligibility? Would other programs, particularly those lower in the conference standings, begin to follow South Carolina’s lead in avoiding competition with top-tier teams like Alabama?

This concern is particularly relevant in an era where strength of schedule plays a major role in the College Football Playoff rankings. The path to a playoff berth has become increasingly difficult for teams in the SEC, with the dominance of Alabama, Georgia, and LSU over the years. As teams like South Carolina look for ways to improve their odds of making the playoff or securing bowl invitations, avoiding high-profile matchups against dominant teams like Alabama might seem like a strategic decision.

For Alabama, the potential for other teams to follow South Carolina’s lead could create a dangerous precedent. If programs start looking for ways to avoid tough matchups, it could undermine the integrity and competitive nature of the SEC, as well as diminish the sport’s overall value.