Alabama expected to cancel Ohio State agreement, ESPN commentator says

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Alabama expected to cancel Ohio State agreement, ESPN commentator says

Alabama expected to cancel Ohio State agreement, ESPN commentator says originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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Alabama appears increasingly unlikely to follow through on its scheduled home-and-home football series with Ohio State in 2027 and 2028, according to ESPN commentator Paul Finebaum.

During a recent interview on 97.1 The Fan, Finebaum said the Crimson Tide’s current situation, both competitively and financially, makes hosting one of the sport’s premier non-conference matchups tough to pull off. 

With the SEC set to move to a nine-game conference schedule beginning in 2026, Finebaum believes Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne will prioritize risk management over early games with top-tier opponents.

“I sincerely doubt the Alabama game is going to happen based on what I’ve heard from Alabama’s AD,” Finebaum said. “He’s got a shaky situation there anyway with a coach that is in trouble.”

Finebaum has been openly critical of second-year Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer, characterizing the state of the program as “daunting” following a 2025 season that included an opening-season loss Florida State and a Rose Bowl beat down by Indiana. He expressed how mounting fan frustration has increased 

While Finebaum continues to describe DeBoer as an accomplished coach, he has questioned whether his leadership style and presence meet Alabama’s historically unforgiving standard set by Nick Saban. The expanded SEC schedule makes elite non-conference games competitively risky, too. 

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DeBoer, who owns a 124-20 career record across 10 seasons as a head coach, went 9-4 in his first Alabama season in 2024 and 11-4 last year. But Finebaum still believes uncertainty surrounding the program makes the Ohio State series vulnerable.

If the matchup is canceled, it would mark another sign of how dramatically scheduling is changing as conference expansion reshapes college football’s landscape.

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