Alabama adds UL Lafayette to 2018 football schedule

By Kevin Kelley -

The Alabama Crimson Tide will play the UL Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns in 2018, Cajuns athletic director Scott Farmer announced on ESPN 1420.

Alabama will host UL Lafayette at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa on Sept. 29, 2018. The Tide will pay the Ragin’ Cajuns a $1.25 million guarantee, per the report.

KATC TV-3 first reported the news of the future football matchup and the Alabama-UL Lafayette game is now listed on the official website of the Ragin’ Cajuns.

Alabama and UL Lafayette first met in 1941 and have played a total of eight games. The Crimson Tide won the most recent meeting 25-6 in 1990 to extend their series lead to 8-0.

The addition of the Ragin’ Cajuns tentatively completes Alabama’s non-conference schedule in 2018. The Crimson Tide are scheduled to open the 2018 season vs. Louisville in Orlando on Sept. 1.

Other non-conference games for Alabama in 2018 include home games against Arkansas State on Sept. 8 and The Citadel on Nov. 17.

In SEC play in 2018, Alabama is slated to host Auburn, Mississippi State, Texas A&M, and Missouri and travel to Arkansas, LSU, Ole Miss, and Tennessee.

UL Lafayette now has two scheduled non-conference games for the 2018 season. The Ragin’ Cajuns are also set to travel to Mississippi State on Nov. 3.

Football Schedules

Comments (37)

Hard to complain on this, even if you’re against the weak methods of scheduling the SEC traditional performs. Neutral site game against Louisville, followed by three home games against; Arkansas State, UL-La and The Citadel.

Mind you the SEC is not the only conference who has scheduled these teams for home games. As early as last year USC was hosting Arkansas St at home & won 55-6, the whole conference of the ACC has played The Citadel plus a couple have lost to them as well, very tough FCS school. As for La. Lafayette, you got me on that one, SEC luvs playing the Rajun Cajuns but it is equivalent to the BIG playing a team like Ohio from the MAC. Weak methods fall on all conferences you see, Louisville can speak for themselves.

The Tide hosting two SunBelt programs and a FCS program. And a neutral site game vs Louisville. For a power program not an OOC schedule to brag about. Apparently Tide fans enjoy watching such home games.

Will be interesting to see which P5 programs Auburn, Arkansas and Vandy are able to add to their 2018 OOC schedules. Not any other P5 programs which need to add a P5 to their OCC schedule. Notre Dame could add a road game, so maybe an Auburn-ND game in Hotlanta? And BYU needs to add two home games, so Vand@BYU is plausible.

Arkansas could set up a 2018-19 series with Michigan (joke). The Razorbacks must feel like Oregon, when Texas A&M cancelled the series with the Ducks, and thus the Ducks ended up with scheduling a neutral site game with Auburn and hosting San Jose St. Too bad Oregon won’t cancel that neutral site game and instead go with a home-and-home with the Razorbacks.

Home-and-home on campus games helped define college football.

Meanwhile, the story about Arizona scheduling two FCS teams posted on this site two complete days prior to this one still doesn’t have a comment about how pathetic Arizona is based on their out-of-conference scheduling.

It’s okay to schedule like this when you are in an also-ran conference like the Pac 12, but not when you’re in the SEC and playing the best teams in the country in conference?

Have to give Alabama a lot of credit, they truly have mastered their scheduling. They play 3 cupcakes and a good, not great power 5 every year (and to be fair, playing a decent Power 5 team is a lot better than most teams). What they do so well though is play a team with good name recognition but is oftentimes in a down-year (i.e. VTech in 2013, WV in 2014, Wisc in 2015 and again with USC in 2016). Looking ahead to 2018, Louisville will likely be in rebuild mode after a couple really good years and Alabama will catch them at the right time. It is a great way for them to continue their reputation as a powerhouse yet not over-expose themselves in the non-conference.

Jeff,
Actually Bama has 4 cupcakes on the schedule this year with USC, 52-6, W.Kentucky put up a bigger fight. I don’t think it Bama’s fault when they play a P5 school that is having a down year, you never know how these teams are going to look year in & year out. There is something about Magic Nick’s hiring of coaches & the players that he recruits that just seem to click, even when I think Bama has a chance of losing 2-3 games a year, I find them in the hunt for the SEC championship & two years straight for the CFP’s. Bama scheduled Louisville before this season even started, who knew Louisville would be this good, Bama scheduled FSU while they were winning a NC, USC has not been that hot over the years & was very hyped up this one. Wisconsin has been good for many years in the BIG. I understand where you are coming from you are correct, a mastering program that knows how to coach, hire coaches & staff, recruit players, go out of state to recruit players, know where to add smaller teams on the schedule for wins. It is an art, at one point Pete Carroll had it at USC, Bo had it at Michigan, Bear had it at Bama, Urban Myer has it everywhere he goes. As for the 3 cupcakes, games still have to be coached, players still get injured, plays still have to be called, teams still have to show up. Over all you are correct though, much credit due.

Joe, I think the reason Arizona didn’t get any mention was that in the two years the Wildcats scheduled FCS teams they already had P5 Texas Tech scheduled for OOC games as well. Hard to find fought in having one of your three OOC games being a home-n-away series with a P5 Texas Tech, whereas Bama has a neutral site P5 game against Louisville (which is good) and THREE non-P5 OOC games. The numbers don’t show strength. Take a chill pill and try to see the whole picture.

The whole picture?

Like how Alabama in those years will also play in the SEC West and get teams like Auburn, Arkansas, Texas A&M, LSU, Ole Miss and a resurgent Tennessee on their conference slate?

And why do you people act like neutral site games are somehow less of a game than a home-and-home? If anything, those games are harder because of the bowl-like atmosphere that surrounds them.

Look, instead of complaining about the SEC and schedules, maybe you should be complaining that the ACC, Pac-12, Big Ten, and Big 12 simply aren’t as good top to bottom as the SEC. Maybe you should put the pressure on them to actually get better. Because as it is those other conferences are just falling further and further behind.

The problem isn’t Alabama and their mind-reading scheduling… the problem is the SEC typically makes these other teams look bad. And it’s going to continue to happen until one of these other conferences decides to take steps to improve their league top to bottom.

Vandy – L – Georgia Tech, 1point W over WKU
Miss. State – L – South Alabama, L – BYU
Mizzou – L – Middle Tennessee State, L – West Virginia
Kentucky – L – Southern Miss

SEC is currently 5-6 vs. P5 schools (including BYU, which SEC allows as a P5)

What’s the Big Ten’s record vs. the FCS?

What’s the Big Ten’s record vs. non-Power 5 teams?

Pitt lost last night for the third time this year. Of course they beat Penn State who embarrassed Ohio State, the league’s best team.

Iowa was in the Big Ten title game last year and has lost to an FCS team this year.

Michigan State, the other representative in the Big Ten title game last year is a joke.

The SEC is easily the better conference when compared to the Big Ten. In fact, the SEC is once again, about nine teams deep. The Big Ten is still Ohio State and 13 other losers.

Joe, please tell me and all of us what you are smoking? The SEC is nine (9) deep and the Big Ten is Ohio State and 13 others?????? Really??????? Kentucky, Vandy, South Carolina, Missouri, Mississippi State are just the first five that would not finish in the top half of the Big Ten this season. In this season’s only match-up of the SEC and Big Ten, did Wisconsin beat LSU in a “neutral” site game as many SEC fan base like to say? I know some SEC like to brag about the fact of preseason rankings, but are there three (3) Big Ten currently in the Top Ten after eight weeks of play? I believe the argument can be more easily made that it’s Alabama and 13 others in the SEC. Please enjoy what you’re smoking, take a time out, and go to your corner.

I disagree. Vandy, South Carolina, Mississippi State and Missouri would have six wins on a Big Ten schedule.

Those teams would feast on teams like Purdue, Indiana, Illinois, Northwestern, Minnesota, and Michigan State.

Wisconsin did beat LSU. But are you going to really say that that one game proves the Big Ten is better? So, the MAC is better than the Big Ten because Western Michigan beat two Big Ten teams? You know it doesn’t work that way.

The SEC is clearly better. If you can’t see that, you simply aren’t paying attention.

So, I know you like to keep things simple, but let’s look at those numbers a little deeper.

The SEC has played a much more difficult schedule to this point.

Alabama has played five Top 25 teams. Arkansas and Mississippi have played five as well. Auburn, Georgia, Texas A&M and Tennessee have played four.

The only team in the Big Ten to play four ranked teams this year? Wisconsin.

Six SEC teams played out-of-conference teams ranked in the Top 25 at the time of the game compared to only four teams in the Big Ten doing the same.

But, that’s life in the SEC. You play better teams week in and week out and you beat them. That’s how you dominate the college football landscape for a decade. You recruit better players, you play better teams, in bigger stadiums, in front of the best fans in the world.

So, while other conferences drop games to teams from the FCS, the SEC will be collecting hardware.

Sorry, you lose again.

– Sorry You cannot Count Pre-Season Rankings or Rankings Based on 3 or 4 Games –

AP Poll As of 10/29

SEC has 5 Teams in Top 25

#1 Bama has played 2 teams (A&M, Tenn)
#9 Texas A&M has played 2 teams (Bama, Tenn)
#14 Florida has played 1 (Tenn)
#15 Auburn has played 3 (Clemson – L, LSU, A&M)
#18 Tennessee has played 3 (Va. Tech, A&M, Bama)
#19 LSU has played 2 (Wisc, – L, Aub)

And before you start about SEC teams beating each other up each week and rankings here is something you said above, “(Fill-in SEC team would) feast on teams like..(___), (____) and .Michigan State.”

MSU started out ranked in the top 10. But clearly that has turned out to be a miscalculation by every prognosticator and pollster out there.

So does Michigan and everyone else that has beaten them get to claim a top 10 win? No. Only when it fits your narrative will that axiom be then applied.

Big Ten has 5 Teams in Top 25

#2 Michigan has played 3 teams (Colo., Wisc. Penn State)
#6 Ohio State has played 3 teams (Oklahoma, Wisc. Penn State)
#7 Nebraska has played 0 (Oregon was ranked, but this is why you do not count PreSeason rankings)
#11 Wisconsin has played 3 teams (LSU, Michigan, Ohio State) – Not Counting Mich. State)
#24 Penn State has played 2 teams (Michigan, Ohio State)

SEC top 25 schools have combined to play 13 Top 25 schools –
SEC record OOC vs. Top 25 schools – 2-2 -W’s vs. N.Car. and Va. Tech
– L’s vs. Wisc. and Clemson

Big 10 Top 25 Schools have combined to play 11 Top 25 Schools –
Big 10 Record OOC vs. Top 25 Schools – 3-0 – W’s over LSU, Oklahoma, Colorado)

I live overseas and watch games from every conference religiously. I do believe that the SEC has more NFL talent than every other conference and usually two or three of the top 10 teams.

I believe Bama is the best team by a mile this year. (I have watched all of their games and Michigan’s, whom I believe to be #2. And Harbaugh is the only coach in America that can play against Saban when his team is deficient. Malzahn might get a quirky Iron Bowl game win against Nick but every other team Alabama goes up against will be a marked talent disadvantage. (When OSU and Meyer won the Playoff it was because the teams were equally matched.)

But I digress……..

But when you get into the jibe about Mizzou, Vandy and Miss. State, etc. walking through another conference that is just TigerBeat-like fandom (when there is on the field proof that they wouldn’t), not people that truly love, enjoy and KNOW the game. And that is what sours me when coming onto websites and seeing the drivel that gets posted.

Anyway, end of rant.

Can’t wait to see what gets posted after the Playoff Committee rankings.

Actually I can count preseason rankings because everyone else does, too.

As for my numbers, the only games that mattered were the games where the teams were ranked at the time of the game. And the SEC clearly has the edge. Look, the Big Ten is playing unranked Power Five teams and the SEC is beating RANKED Power 5 teams.

This is why the Big Ten is trying to count Fresno State and Connecticut as Power Five teams… they can’t beat good Power 5 teams and there just aren’t enough bad Power 5 teams to count.

The middle of the SEC would be in the race in the Big Ten. The middle of the Big Ten would be in the basement of the SEC. Hell, Ohio State, the best team in the Big Ten, almost lost yesterday to a team that has a loss to an FCS team this year. What does that say about the Big Ten? Remember, that’s is YOUR logic.

If losing to South Alabama makes Mississippi State and the whole of the SEC bad, then what does the best team in the Big Ten almost losing to a team that has a loss to an FCS team mean for the Big Ten?

Probably nothing because you’ll overlook it… It doesn’t fit your narrative so it won’t matter.

Meanwhile, those of us that actually understand the game realize that’s just how the game works.

JackStriker, Just responding to write I appreciate your straight unbiased approach to sharing your thoughts. College football is an emotional passionate environment and you continue to share level headed postings. Thank you. As for Joe, well sometimes it’s best to say nothing.

@Joe

“Actually I can count preseason rankings because everyone else does, too.”

Playoff committee does not.

“As for my numbers, the only games that mattered were the games where the teams were ranked at the time of the game. And the SEC clearly has the edge. Look, the Big Ten is playing unranked Power Five teams and the SEC is beating RANKED Power 5 teams.”

No one but you cares about your numbers.

OOC Records for P5 Schools

Big 10 – is 8-4.
ACC – 6-6
Pac 12 – 6-4
Big 12 – 4-6
SEC – 5-6

Big 10 Record OOC vs. Top 25 Schools – 3-0 – W’s over LSU, Oklahoma, Colorado)

SEC record OOC vs. Top 25 schools – 2-2 -W’s vs. N.Car. and Va. Tech
– L’s vs. Wisc. and Clemson

And if rankings matter to you so much to you, the Big10 has 4 of top 11.

Goodbye,

“Playoff committee does not.”

ESPN does. Everyone uses preseason rankings. And I guarantee you the playoff committee is well aware of the preseason rankings and Alabama will be first when the first rankings come out.

“No one but you cares about your numbers.”

And by ‘no one’ you mean anyone that knows anything about football or facts. Again, those rankings that I used were at the times of the game. If you can’t argue it, that’s on you, cupcake.

“And if rankings matter to you so much to you, the Big10 has 4 of top 11.”

Get back with me when the Big Ten actually plays competition that matters. I’ll be upstairs with your mom.

It’s funny Joe, each time it is so blatantly apparent that you lost an argument, you are off with someones mom. What is it with you and 60-70 year old women? I think it would be dumb for anyone to argue with you that there is a team out there right now that has shown they are better than Alabama. There isn’t. And if there was, there just isn’t enough evidence without the two teams actually playing one another to make a case against Alabama. The problem with the SEC is better than everyone else argument is that this year, it doesn’t look like there really is anyone else in the SEC. Case in point is no-one outside of Ole Miss has even been competitive with Alabama. You mentioned that the SEC has played many top 25 teams. What you didn’t mention was that they lost the majority of such games. And if you are going to at least attempt to argue this SEC is better than everyone else argument, do yourself a favor and amend your argument to “The SEC West is better than anyone else.” While it still is not true (B10 East and and ACC Atlantic are probably marginally better divisions), it at least would be an intriguing argument. By including the SEC East, your argument is just downright laughable. Florida is the only team that attempts to resemble an actual football team in the division and when they finally play someone (FSU, a 2-3 team in the ACC) they will get smoked.

A 4-2 record against ranked teams does not show the SEC has lost a ‘majority’ of those games.

If you can’t even grasp the simple things like that, I guess I shouldn’t expect you to grasp the difficult things.

Full disclosure Joe, the SEC is 4-2 using your logic (ranked when played) and 2-4 using my logic (current rankings) as shown below:

Joe’s Logic
Ala W #20 USC
A&M W #16 UCLA
UGA W #22 UNC
Ark W #15 TCU
Aub L #2 Clem
Miss L #4 FSU

My Logic

UGA W #18 UNC
TN W #23 VT
Aub L #3 Clem
LSU L #8 Wisc
Mizz L #14 WV
Miss L #19 FSU

I am perfectly fine with you using your logic (I’m not going to insult your intelligence) but in my opinion it is misguided. I think your goal is to insinuate that the SEC does well when they play stiff competition. If that is in fact your goal, I would think you would want to base the competition on how good they actually are vs how good people thought they were going to be. Sure we thought USC, UCLA and TCU were going to be good this year but it turns out they are a dumpster fire.

The funny thing is that based on either your logic or my logic, the B10 has a better record than the SEC in either scenario at 4-1 and 3-4 as shown here:

Joe’s Logic B10:

Wisc W #5 LSU
OSU W #14 Okla
MSU W # 18 ND
Neb W #22 Ore
Rutg L #14 Wash

My Logic B10:

OSU W #12 Okla
Wisc W #14 LSU
Mich W #21 Colo
Rutg L #4 Wash
NW L #17 WM
Ill L #17 WM
Ill L #18 UNC

In conclusion, the SEC loses again.

If Alabama is such a bad ass school and their football program is the best in the country why are they paying over a million dollars to get a for a lack of a better work, cupcake school on their schedule. A number One School should have a schedule worthy of their playing. At end of the season just go down the rankings from 2 to 14 and that I think would be worthy of such a bad-ass school and then they would not have to spend so much money fixing their schedule.

Your logic makes little sense. The rankings when teams play is the key. Injuries happen, people that know the game understand this. LSU is a much better team today than when they played in week one. Like wise, Georgia is probably a worse team today than they were in week one.

But what matters is when the game was played, were they ranked? I mean, we could use your logic and say that Army since they aren’t ranked today, have never been a good football team. But in the 1950s, they were a good football team. That’s, quite simply, dumb logic.

It makes much more sense to use the rankings when the teams actually played the game, not some ranking well after the game was played. Teams change. Again, only people that truly understand the game can comprehend that fact, I guess.

when taking that into account, the SEC has played more teams out-of-conference that were ranked.

It’s also worth noting, the SEC hasn’t lost to an FCS team. The Big Ten has lost to two. And the SEC isn’t the conference trying to count playing non-power 5 schools as Power 5 teams in order to satisfy their own scheduling requirement.

So, the SEC wins again. Like always.

So when you read my approach, you got out of that that that Army has never been good? Come on Joe, let’s use some common sense. Anyone reading this who has a lick of sense can infer that these comparisons are done on a year by year basis. I know you are stuck in the glory days of 2010 where the SEC was in fact the best conference, but it is 2016. An overwhelming amount of data has pointed to the B10 and ACC being the top 2 conferences this year. You just choose to ignore it. When you are watching college football this Saturday, make sure you are watching ESPN and not ESPN Classic.

That’s your logic. If Stanford isn’t ranked today, then they couldn’t have been good three weeks ago. But that logic is incorrect. Teams change through the season.

There isn’t one shred of evidence that the Big Ten, a conference that has lost to TWO FCS teams is better than anyone other than the Big 12.

And I’ll be watching ESPN… Watching the conference with two of the top four teams in the nation, and that’s not the Big Ten or the ACC.

Joe
“SEC isn’t the conference trying to count playing non-power 5 schools as Power 5 teams in order to satisfy their own scheduling requirement.”

SEC counts Army and BYU

BYU beat Mississippi State this season.

Joe
“Georgia is probably a worse team today than they were in week one.”

Then why count a subjective rating anyway, especially the ones before the game was even played?

Subjective –
1.) existing in the mind; belonging to the thinking subject rather than to the object of thought

2.) placing excessive emphasis on one’s own moods, attitudes, opinions,

To Give You An Analogy Joe:

Saying a team you have never seen play before is somehow better than another team is akin to you saying a movie you have never viewed is either the best or trash.

The SEC counts Army and BYU.

The Big Ten counts half of the American, some of Mountain West, and should be counting Western Michigan considering they beat two Big Ten teams this year, and perhaps they should count the Dakota teams since they beat a Big Ten team quite regularly.

And for the record, outside of a few meetings with Vandy over the last 20 years, the SEC isn’t scheduling Army.

BYU beat Michigan State too. By three scores. In East Lansing. They beat Mississippi State by one touchdown. In Utah. In double overtime.

No shame there.

If Georgia’s ranking was ‘subjective’ in week one, then all rankings are subjective until the end of the season. The fact is, at the start of the year, Georgia was a top 25 team. At the time. Now they aren’t. If Ohio State drops their next three games, they may very well fall from the Top 25. Would that mean that in September they weren’t a good team? Of course not. But using your logic it would. But your logic isn’t based on knowledge of the game or any sort of experience, it’s built on hating one conference just because they are clearly better.

The people that make the rankings are some of the smartest football people around. Are they always right? No. But they are pretty close. What’s interesting is that if the rankings proved the Big Ten was better, you’d probably love the rankings. But since they don’t, you hate them and are doing your best to discredit them.

And failing. You are failing miserably, I might add.

The B10 is 4-1 vs nonconference ranked teams (ranked when played). The SEC is 4-2. You tell me, what is higher 80% or 67%?

One more question. So since the experts preseason ranking of Stanford was #8, Tennessee was #9, Michigan St was #12, TCU of #13 and UCLA of #16, you believe that at the start of the season, Stanford actually was the 8th best team in the country, Tennessee was actually #9 and so on. Give me a break.

Sure I believe it. Just like the 60 sportswriters who vote in the poll believed it.

I guess a better question is do I trust the votes of sixty people who all make a living covering the game of college football or do I trust some idiot behind a keyboard who obviously knows next to nothing about the game.

And while the SEC is 4-2 and the Big Ten is 4-1 against ranked teams… the SEC has not lost to an FCS team. The Big Ten has lost to two of them.

One of those teams was in the Big Ten title game less than a year ago.

SB Nation. Detailed analysis. Advanced metrics. Schematic break-downs.

“Sure I believe it. Just like the 60 sportswriters who vote in the poll believed it.
I guess a better question is do I trust the votes of sixty people who all make a living covering the game of college football or do I trust some idiot behind a keyboard who obviously knows next to nothing about the game.”

I guess you just believe the websites that pander to your beliefs. FOX News. ESPN. Alex Jones. David Duke.

First you say the Playoff committee follows what the pollers do, but then Playoff committee goes and moves A&M up three spots from 7 to 4 from what they would be in the ESPN/AP poll. But sports writers that you don’t like don’t know what they are talking about.

Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life boy.

Any moron in America can write for SB Nation.

Full of conspiracy theories, poorly written articles, and gossip. I can see why you would read it. It’s for idiots like you.

The Playoff Committee does follow the pollsters, but I never claimed they just regurgitate the same rankings. That’s your own ignorant assumption, cupcake.

Fat, drunk and stupid and still making you look pathetic. Not that you make it difficult.

Well I guess if you have enough money, you can just about write up your own schedule.
Maybe they can get an exhibition game with the #1 High School team and I am sure if they toss about 5 million to the right people it would even count as a win on their way to another National Title Game.