If Alabama beats Oklahoma in Norman on Saturday night, it will not just keep its SEC championship and College Football Playoff hopes alive this season.

With a victory, the Crimson Tide would even its all-time record vs. the Sooners to 3-3-1. The series between the two new SEC rivals includes four bowl games, plus a pair of regular-season games the early years of this century.

Alabama won the first meeting with Oklahoma 17-0 in the 1963 Sugar Bowl, a game largely remembered for Lee Roy Jordan’s legendary 31-tackle performance. The teams tied 24-24 in the 1970 Bluebonnet Bowl in Houston, with the Crimson Tide’s Richard Ciemny missing a 34-yard field goal on the final play.

Oklahoma swept the two regular-season meetings, winning 37-27 in Norman in 2002 and 20-13 in Tuscaloosa in 2003. Those two games spanned Alabama’s final season under Dennis Franchione and its first under Mike Shula.

Then came Oklahoma’s 45-31 victory in the Jan. 2, 2014 Sugar Bowl, ending a season in which Alabama had been ranked No. 1 much of the way before losing the Iron Bowl on the Kick Six. The Crimson Tide got its payback over the Sooners and Heisman winner Kyler Murray in the Dec. 29, 2018 Orange Bowl, part of a season in which Alabama went 14-1 and lost to Clemson in the College Football Playoff National Championship game.

Oklahoma is one of just seven teams Alabama has played more than once against which it doesn’t have a winning record. The list includes some of the game’s true blue bloods, but also a few “randos,” as the kids say.

Before we get to that, we must note that there are 10 other opponents Alabama has played only once and lost, either in bowl games or in regular-season one-offs. In chronological order, those are Cumberland (1903), Carlisle (1914), Centre (1924), Georgia Pre-Flight (1942), Villanova (1951), Central Florida (2000), Northern Illinois (2003), Minnesota (2004), Oklahoma State (2006) and Utah (2008).

As for those the Crimson Tide has played more often but hasn’t historically dominated, here’s that list, in descending order based on number of all-time meetings (Alabama’s series won-lost record in parentheses):

1. Texas (2-8-1)

The Crimson Tide famously did not beat the Longhorns during the 20th century before finally breaking through during the Nick Saban era. Texas won regular-season meetings in Tuscaloosa in 1902 and in Austin in 1915 and 1922 by a combined score of 49-10. Then came a 27-7 Longhorns win in the January 1948 Sugar Bowl. Paul “Bear” Bryant went 0-3-1 vs. Texas, with a 3-3 tie in the 1960 Bluebonnet Bowl (what is it about Alabama ties in that game?) followed by excruciating New Year’s Day losses in the 1965 Orange Bowl (21-17), 1973 Cotton Bowl (17-13) and 1982 Cotton Bowl (14-12). Two of those losses were controversial, as Crimson Tide quarterback Joe Namath was stopped just short of the goal line to end the 1965 Orange Bowl and Longhorns quarterback Alan Lowry appeared to step out of bounds at the 10-yard line during a 31-yard run for the winning touchdown in the 1973 Cotton Bowl. Alabama finally got its revenge in the 2010 BCS National Championship Game in Pasadena, winning 37-21 for its first title under Saban. Then came a home-and-home series just before Texas joined the SEC, with Alabama winning 20-19 in Austin in 2022 and Texas returning the favor 34-24 in Tuscaloosa in 2023.

2. Notre Dame (3-5)

Bryant also never beat Notre Dame, losing back-to-back New Year’s Day Bowl games and a pair of regular-season contests as well. The Crimson Tide’s meeting with the Fighting Irish on Dec. 31, 1973 in the Sugar Bowl was billed as one of the biggest college football games of the 20th Century, with Notre Dame squeaking out a 24-23 win over an Alabama team that had already been crowned national champion. The Irish prevented a second straight Crimson Tide title with a 13-11 win in the Orange Bowl on New Year’s Day 1975. Alabama and Notre Dame met during the regular season in 1976 and 1980, with the Fighting Irish first winning 21-18 in South Bend before scoring a 7-0 victory in Birmingham four years later. The breakthrough came in 1986, with Ray Perkins’ Alabama team winning 28-10 at Legion Field in a game made famous by Cornelius Bennett’s helmet-rattling sack of Steve Beuerlein. Notre Dame won 37-6 in South Bend the following year, which would be the last meeting between the two until the BCS National Championship Game in January 2013 in Miami. Alabama crushed Notre Dame 42-14 for its second straight national championship in that one. The Crimson Tide also beat the Fighting Irish 31-14 in a 2020 College Football Playoff semifinal in Arlington, Texas, a Rose Bowl game that was moved from Pasadena due to the COVID pandemic.

3. TCU (2-3)

The Crimson Tide and Horned Frogs have met five times in the regular season, three times in the 1950s and twice in the 1970s. TCU took advantage of Ears Whitworth-era Alabama to win 21-0 in Tuscaloosa in 1955, 23-6 in Tuscaloosa in 1956 and 28-0 in Fort Worth in 1957. The teams played back-to-back games in Birmingham during Bryant’s 1970s heyday, with Alabama winning 41-3 in 1974 and 45-0 in 1975. The 1974 game is widely remembered by a life-changing injury suffered by Horned Frogs running back Kent Waldrep, who was permanently paralyzed after being tackled during a second-quarter play. Waldrep later became a well-known advocate for the disabled and forged a friendship with Bryant, who was at his hospital bedside when he awoke following surgery and made him an honorary member of Alabama’s A-Club letterman’s association the following year.

4. Boston College (1-3)

The Eagles have a winning streak vs. the Crimson Tide that spans a total of three games over the course of nearly 80 years. Frank Thomas’ Alabama team beat B.C. 37-21 in the Orange Bowl at the end of the 1947 season for the Crimson Tide’s only win in the series. Then came a 13-7 Eagles win in Boston in 1946. Ray Perkins’ first two Alabama teams faced Boston College, and just so happened to catch the Eagles at their absolute apex under phenom quarterback Doug Flutie. Boston College won 20-13 at Foxboro Stadium (home of the New England Patriots) in 1983, then claimed a 38-31 win in Birmingham to begin the 1984 season (Flutie’s Heisman year). The latter game is also remembered for an incredible performance by Alabama’s Kerry Goode, who totaled 297 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns — including an 86-yard touchdown run and a 99-yard kickoff return to start the second half — before suffering a season-ending knee injury in the third quarter. Goode came back for the 1985 season, but re-injured his knee in practice and was never really the same player.

5. UCLA (1-2)

The series between the Crimson Tide and Bruins includes a mid-1970s bowl game and two-regular season meetings at the dawn of the 21st century. Alabama beat UCLA 36-6 in the 1976 Liberty Bowl, a game remembered for its bone-chilling weather conditions (28 degrees at kickoff) and a star-making performance by Crimson Tide linebacker Barry Krauss, who was named game MVP after returning an interception 44 yards for a touchdown. Alabama opened the 2000 season at UCLA, looking to build off its 1999 SEC championship and returning to the Rose Bowl stadium for the first time in more than 50 years. The Crimson Tide took an early lead before Deshaun Foster and the Bruins rolled to a 35-24 victory, sending Alabama careening toward a 3-8 finish. The teams met in the following year’s opener in Tuscaloosa, the debut of coach Dennis Franchione. UCLA won that one as well, overcoming an early 10-point deficit for a 20-17 victory behind another 100-yard day from Foster (who is now the Bruins’ head coach, incidentally).

6. Rice (0-3)

It’s the answer to an unusual trivia question — which is the only opponent Alabama has played more than once that it has never beaten? The answer of course is Rice, which beat Alabama three times in the 1950s and has not faced the Crimson Tide since. The first meeting was a 28-6 victory by the Owls in the 1953 Cotton Bowl, a game made famous when Alabama’s Tommy Lewis came off the bench to tackle Rice halfback Dicky Maegle in the second quarter. Lewis later told reporters he was just “too full of ‘Bama” to let Maegle score, though officials awarded Maegle a 95-yard touchdown on the play anyway. The teams met in Houston to begin the 1955 and 1956 seasons, with Rice winning 20-0 and 20-13. Few living remember much about those games or even want to (at least in Tuscaloosa).

So there’s a very short recap of those opponents who have gotten the better of Alabama more often than not over the years. Should the Crimson Tide beat Oklahoma on Saturday night in Norman, it would remove one at least temporarily from the list.

Kickoff for Alabama-Oklahoma on Saturday is set for 7 p.m. on ABC.