Ohio State and Alabama Reach Historic Agreement

The Ohio State University and the University of Alabama announced an agreement earlier today that ignited conversation among college football fans across the country. The Buckeyes and Crimson Tide will play a home-and-home in 2027 and 2028, the first time the schools have ever come to such an arrangement in their respective historic programs. And while occasionally these types of agreements can fall apart or be delayed, the terms of this agreement are as historic as the pact itself.

Lettermen Row and Eleven Warriors have each confirmed that the Buckeyes and Crimson Tide have agreed to pay the visiting team $1 million during the course of the series to help offset travel costs. In addition, if either team breaks the agreement and cancels their participation in the series, the canceling team will pay a $3 million buyout.

“We wanted to do something totally different,” Deputy Director of Athletics Diana Sabau told Lettermen Row. “Usually when you have a home-and-home, you don’t exchange financial resources. Each school just benefits from being at their home stadium that one year. But Ohio State and Alabama said: We’re going to agree to pay each other $1 million as a visiting team just to help out with expenses. It’s expensive to travel a football team and it’s expensive to travel everything that comes with that. So, we’ll help each other out with that, and the net of that is zero, nobody comes out ahead, but it does provide a little bit of ease.

“Then, really, we knew we were serious when we said: We’re not backing out of this. We’re making sure this comes to fruition and is executed, so we put a $3 million penalty on that. That’s something Ohio State has never been a part of … we’ve never had a penalty clause that steep. But we are committed 100 percent to the execution of this series, and we both wanted to show our investment in it.”

While the two powerhouse programs are always among those that competing for a spot in the College Football Playoff, there is a reasonable likelihood that the playoff will expand beyond four teams by the time this series is played in 2027 and 2028. That could mean a less stiff penalty for the team who loses each game, since a single early season loss has already proven to much to overcome for some playoff teams.

Of course, with the first game of the series seven years away, some of the players in that game can't yet attend a PG-13 movie. But given Nick Saban's and Ryan Day's recruiting track record, you can feel confident this game will live up to the hype.

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