This is an opinion column.

Does anyone remember what happened the last time Auburn opened a football season with a true road game? Not one of those made-for-TV deals at an antiseptic neutral site, but an old-school, “Whoa, Nellie!” road game in another school’s sandbox.

I do. It was 2002. A memorable trip indeed. The opponent: No. 20 USC. The venue: The historic Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

The unranked Tigers stayed in a swanky hotel overlooking a movie studio. In a strange sort of foreshadowing, head coach Tommy Tuberville got the presidential suite, complete with a grand piano. The game turned out to be a thrilling close encounter.

Eventual Heisman winner Carson Palmer threw for 300 yards and scored the winning touchdown late as USC prevailed 24-17. Auburn rebounded to go 9-4 and beat Penn State in the Capital Ole Bowl.

Does anyone remember what happened the last time Alabama started a football season with a true road game? Two years before the Auburn family traveled to the West Coast, the Crimson Tide and its RV army rolled into the venerable Rose Bowl Stadium to kick off the 2000 season against UCLA. Wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

Fresh off an SEC title run that included two wins over Steve Spurrier and Florida, Alabama was ranked No. 3 in the nation. UCLA was unranked and unimpressed. The Bruins rocked the Tide 35-24. That loss was the first pebble in an avalanche that saw Alabama tumble from No. 3 to 3-8 and dismiss head coach Mike DuBose.

The moral to the story: Don’t start a football season in California or anywhere else with an old-school, “Whoa, Nellie!” true road game in another school’s sandbox. It might be no day at the beach.

More than two decades later, both Auburn and Alabama have seen so much regime change, they’ve no doubt forgotten those painful lessons. The Tigers and Tide both will begin the upcoming season as strangers in strange lands, making their debuts as perilous as they’ve been in tandem in ages.

As if it weren’t risky enough watching a new starting quarterback take the wheel, Auburn’s Jackson Arnold and Alabama’s Ty Simpson will have to start proving themselves in decidedly hostile environments.

Arnold will take his first real snaps for the Tigers at Baylor on Friday, Aug. 29. The Bears aren’t expected to be playoff contenders, but their head coach, Dave Aranda, is a pretty sporty defensive mind. His schemes could give Hugh Freeze’s offense fits right out of the box.

Baylor won its last six regular-season games last season before losing to LSU in the Texas Bowl to finish 8-5. While Auburn has suffered through four straight losing seasons and adjusted to a coaching change, Baylor has posted winning marks twice in the last four years under Aranda.

In short, Baylor is no UMass or Alabama A&M, the gimmes Auburn opened with the last two seasons under Freeze.

The day after Auburn tests itself at Baylor, Alabama takes its show on the road to Florida State. Hard to believe the Seminoles will be as bad as they were during their 2-10 nightmare of 2024 or as good as they were the year before when 13-0 didn’t earn them a playoff bid because their quarterback got hurt.

Which team got that 2023 playoff spot that FSU swore it deserved? Alabama. Add that extra incentive to the chopping and chanting home crowd in Tallahassee, and the Alabama team that lost at Vanderbilt, at Tennessee and at Oklahoma last season has real work to do in its first assignment of Year Two under Kalen DeBoer.

The risks of playing a true road opener with a new starting quarterback against a power conference opponent are obvious. How will Auburn respond if Arnold fumbles the ball away to give Baylor a quick scoop-and-score? How will Alabama react if Simpson throws a first-quarter pick-six?

There’s no way for Freeze or DeBoer to know for sure.

The rewards of starting 1-0 with a quality victory away from home are plentiful, too. Kudos to Auburn and Alabama for giving their fan bases a reason to get excited from the jump.

The rarity of true road openers elevates the anticipation. Does anyone remember the last time Auburn and Alabama both needed suitcases to start the same season as true road warriors?

It was 1976. Auburn opened at Arizona and lost 31-19. Alabama started at Ole Miss and fell 10-7. Not the best omen, but no reason for alarm, either. Call it a cautionary tale, an ancient reminder for the Iron Bowl brothers to get their acts in gear in a hurry.