An era of Southeastern Conference football is ending this fall, causing many coaches to speculate about the future of scheduling and rivalry games.

Alabama will be taking a trip to Norman and meet the SEC’s latest addition in Oklahoma next year. The Tide already played Mississippi State for the last time until at least 2025. And aside from the Iron Bowl, it’s unclear if Alabama’s yearly permanent opponents will include LSU and Tennessee, as was proposed in March in a division-less model.

If it were up to LSU head coach Brian Kelly and UA’s Nick Saban, the Tigers and Tide would be an annual meeting.

“They got a great atmosphere at their stadium. We got a great atmosphere at our stadium. Both fan bases look forward to the game and I think as many of these types of fan-interest, rivalry games, whatever you want to call them, that we can sort of keep over time is [sic] beneficial to the conference and beneficial to the players who play the game,” Saban said on the weekly SEC teleconference.

Kelly noted during his segment Wednesday morning that as coaches and league officials in Birmingham work out scheduling, the teams will have an input. Kelly and athletic director Scott Woodward have discussed wanting Alabama on its schedule moving forward.

This week, both coaches have discussed the recent history between the two programs and how success at both has brought about a naturally-occurring big game whenever LSU and Alabama meet. Saban took a slightly different tone about the matchup and Alabama’s proposed perma-opponents than he did this spring.

Saban told Sports Illustrated in March he didn’t agree with the fixed model since it placed the Tide against three of the best SEC West teams, historically. Saban offered an eight-game model for parity. When asked about potentially having one fixed opponent, and that being LSU, Saban wasn’t so sure.

“We got some natural rivalry games here that have tremendous fan interest, whether it’s Auburn, Tennessee and LSU. If you’re only going to play one of those, somebody is gonna be disappointed. I think if we eventually expand the schedule in the league, which probably will happen someday with that many teams, and you have three-fixed, probably have a little better chance of that happening,” said Saban.

Alabama already beat Tennessee on Oct. 21, avenging a late 2022 loss in Knoxville. It’ll host LSU this Saturday at 6:45 p.m. CT. The Tide will be on the road for the Iron Bowl on Nov. 25 at Auburn.

Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].