Alabama's 2007 schedule is listed in Bama Magazine '06 Yearbook and I already knew 11 of the 12 teams. They did change the order of a game or two and the last out of conference addition is pathetic. While I like not having the LSU and Auburn games back to back, now we have Tennessee and LSU back to back so that's not really gaining anything. The schedule is listed as tentative since not all of the games have been contracted.
2007
09/01 - Western Carolina (I-AA)
09/08 - at Vanderbilt
09/15 - Arkansas
09/22 - Georgia
09/29 - Florida State @ Jacksonville, FL (neutral)
10/06 - Houston
10/13 - at Ole Miss
10/20 - Tennessee
11/03 - LSU
11/10 - at Mississippi State
11/17 - Louisiana-Monroe
11/24 - at Auburn
I can't even begin to express my disappointment over scheduling a I-AA team. I just cannot see what there is to be gained from playing a team like them except for a guaranteed win.
For those of you that have forgotten (and I don't see how you could), Western Carolina is the team we slaughtered 52-0 in 2004 in a game that saw Brodie Croyle's season end early. I'm obviously not blaming the injury on Western Carolina, but come on Alabama, this is ridiculous. Give us another Sun Belt or C-USA team, but spare us I-AA opponents.
Florida State is obviously a big game, Georgia isn't on the schedule every year and that'll be tough, so I suppose that's the motivation. Among the other three OOC opponents, at least Houston is decent (they went to a bowl game in '05.)
Here's the future opponents beyond '07 that we know are lined up:
09/11/10 - Penn State
09/20/11 - at Penn State
09/15/12 - Georgia Tech
09/13/14 - at Georgia Tech
I mentioned earlier in the week that a series with Ohio State is being discussed.
According to this article, Alabama is also having discussions with the following:
Oklahoma
Nebraska
Notre Dame
Those are three opponents I would certainly welcome.
Update [2006-6-18 0:11:48 by Nico]: I didn't realize we get a week off between Tennessee and LSU when I originally posted this. That is an improvement.