Alabama Basketball, Gonzaga Set to Finalize Neutral-Site Series

The Crimson Tide and Bulldogs are set to meet during the 2021-2022 season in Seattle then in Birmingham during the 2022-2023 campaign

Per Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports, Alabama basketball and Gonzaga are in an agreement to begin a neutral-site series beginning in the 2021-2022 season in Seattle on Dec. 4 inside the new Climate Pledge Arena. 

During the 2022-2023 campaign, the Bulldogs would travel to Birmingham to face the Crimson Tide in the renovated Legacy Arena.

Sources: Gonzaga and Alabama are finalizing an agreement to play a neutral site game next season in Seattle. There will be a return game in Birmingham during the 22-23 season.

— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) May 26, 2021

Last week, Alabama announced its plans to participate in the Orlando Invitation during Thanksgiving Week that includes the likes of Kansas, Iona, Dayton, North Texas, Miami (FL), Belmont and Drake. 

The Crimson Tide will also play a home game with Houston after last year's meeting was cancelled due to COVID-19 protocols with the Cougars program, meaning that Alabama will face at least two of the 2021 Final Four participants next season. 

“I think you guys have gotten to know me well enough that we’re gonna schedule really good teams,” Oats told the media in April. “Houston’s pretty good. I’m not trying to schedule too many top-10 teams to come in here. Houston will be in here. We’re still trying to work on the Birmingham deal, what’s gonna happen there. We typically play up there and some other ones. We’ve got some work to do on the schedule, it’s nowhere close to being done. Adam [Bauman]’s been working hard on it. I was a little more tied up with some of this recruiting. Now that that’s over, we can turn our attention a little bit more to scheduling. Maybe have a better update on that in a month or so.

“That’s not really the way it works when you play in the SEC. You’ve got enough top-10 teams in-conference here. I’m not scheduling a bunch of them out of conference. We’ve got the Big 12 Challenge, we’re going to Orlando in the AdvoCare that’s got a solid field. There’s only so many really high-level games you want in the non-conference. There’s an art to this doing this scheduling thing, and I think we’ve done pretty good with it.”