5-star Ohio State commit Eddrick Houston gives Alabama final look before Signing Day…
Alabama hosted an impressive group of official and unofficial visitors this weekend with the Early Signing Period just around the corner. A pair of running backs committed elsewhere made it back to campus as well as some transfer portal targets and commits. There was also a rather big surprise visitor in Tuscaloosa on Saturday.
Five-star Ohio State Eddrick Houston (Buford, GA) arrived on campus Saturday morning just in time to watch the Crimson Tide’s first Rose Bowl practice. He met with Nick Saban and a few assistant coaches on Sunday morning before traveling back home.
The new exclusive owner of the Southeastern Conference, ESPN (and with it, ABC and the SEC Network along with ESPN2, ESPNU, and “now streaming” on ESPN+), with several time slots available, it’s realistic to expect all SEC games with the new 16-team content to be televised in some form and at some time. I guess.
It’s the nature of my job, covering Alabama football, that only occasionally do I see complete college football games of other teams on television. There will be two open dates for every team in 2024 and when the complete schedule was released last week it was revealed that I will be off on Sept. 21 and Nov. 2. That’s twice as many days as I have had off in 2023.
Other than open dates, I usually see snippets of some others in a press box somewhere before and/or after Crimson Tide games. If a Bama game is particularly early or particularly late, that also may offer a chance to see others. The likely SEC Game of the Year, Georgia at Alabama on Sept. 28, is announced as a night game, so maybe I’ll watch an earlier game. I, however, am limited in these opportunities. People with real lives can pick and choose with a little more leeway.
Until all times and TV schedules are announced, I won’t know which if any other SEC games I’ll be able to watch, but I have looked at the schedule and seen some that I would like to see. Actually, of course, there are some I would prefer to see than those Alabama games I’ll be covering, but dedication to duty, you know.
The first week is easy for number one because LSU will be playing Southern Cal in Las Vegas on Sunday, Sept. 1, the day after all other conference teams open Aug. 31.
I looked at the week-by-week schedule and decided which game or games other than the Alabama game of the week I’d most like to see. Here are the week-by-week schedules and my choices and I welcome your selections.