The Colorado State Rams will play at the Alabama Crimson Tide in 2013, CSU athletic director Jack Graham announced last night at a CSU Ram Club event.
Colorado State will face Alabama at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa on Sept. 21, 2013. The game will be the first ever meeting between the two schools and will pit Bama coach Nick Saban against his former offensive coordinator Jim McElwain, now the head coach of the Rams.
Earlier this month, the Denver Post reported that Alabama and Colorado State were in talks for a game in 2013 and 2015.
The announcement gives Colorado State five non-conference games in 2013, meaning they will likely need to cancel or postpone one. Other games slated for CSU are Colorado (8/31; at Denver), at Tulsa (Sept. 7), Cal Poly (Sept. 14), and at UTEP (Sept. 28).
The most likely candidate for cancellation/postponement is a Sept. 7 contest at Tulsa. CSU will definitely play Colorado, and their two other opponents, Cal Poly and UTEP, just made announcements this week confirming the games.
In fact, the Colorado State-UTEP game had been set for Sept. 21 for some time, but the Miners announced the contest last night as Sept. 28. That cleared Sept. 21 for CSU to travel to Alabama.
But Colorado State could still face Tulsa if one of their Mountain West games includes a trip to Hawaii. Under the Hawaii Exemption, teams that play at Hawaii may schedule 13 games. CSU hosted Hawaii in 2012.
As for the Crimson Tide, their 2013 schedule is now complete. The Tide open the 2013 season in the Chick-fil-A College Kickoff against Virginia Tech (Aug. 31) and also have non-conference games at home against Georgia State (Oct. 5) and Chattanooga (Nov. 23).
Bama’s SEC slate, which was announced in October, includes home games vs. Ole Miss, Arkansas, Tennessee, and LSU and road games at Texas A&M, Kentucky, Mississippi State, and Auburn.
Football Schedules