Category: Alabama Crimson Tide

Nate Oats and the Alabama Crimson Tide are in West Lafayette to take on the Purdue Boilermakers in a marquee nonconference matchup at Mackey Arena featuring two Top 25 teams.

Alabama (3-0) is ranked No. 2 in the both the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll and AP Top 25 poll. Purdue (3-0) is ranked No. 12 in the Coaches Poll. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. CT. The game can be seen exclusively on Peacock, marking the first time the Crimson Tide have ever appeared on the streaming platform.

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Since it’s Alabama’s first time playing exclusively on Peacock, that caused me to think about the last time a Crimson Tide team in a major sport appeared on any NBC-owned property — including the actual flagship NBC network.

The answer? It’s been a while.

In 2019, Oats’ first season in Tuscaloosa, Alabama played the Rhode Island Rams in the third game of the season at Ryan Center in Kingston. Rhode Island won, 93-79. That game was televised on the now defunct NBC Sports Network, or NBCSN. (Hat tip to Griffin Smith on X, formerly Twitter, for pointing this out.)

As for Alabama football? It’s been even longer since the Crimson Tide last appeared on an NBC-owned channel.

In fact, you’d have to go all the way back to New Year’s Day 1991 when Alabama played the Louisville Cardinals, then a football independent, in the Fiesta Bowl at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz. The game was nationally televised on NBC.

In one of the ugliest bowl game performances in Alabama football history, Louisville got out to a stunning 25-0 lead in a first quarter that took nearly one full hour from start to finish.

The Cardinals, led by former Bear Bryant player and assistant coach Howard Schnellenberger, won 34-7. The late Charlie Jones called the game for NBC alongside former BYU Cougars and Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders tight end Todd Christensen.

Louisville quarterback Browning Nagle was the game’s MVP. Nagle threw for a Fiesta Bowl record 451 yards against Alabama.

Off the field, the game was mired in a cloud of controversy over a decision by Arizona voters to reject a proposal that would have made Martin Luther King Jr. Day a paid holiday for state workers. According to a Jan. 2, 1991, story from the New York Times, Fiesta Bowl officials considered moving the game to San Diego.

Separately, both Notre Dame and Virginia had refused to play in the Fiesta Bowl over the voters’ decision.

Alabama fans of a certain age will also recall that NBC angered many in its audience by cutting away from the Fiesta Bowl to head to Miami for that night’s Orange Bowl clash between No. 5 Notre Dame and No. 1 Colorado. The Buffaloes beat the Irish, 10-9, for a share of the national championship with Georgia Tech.

The issue was, NBC cut away from the Fiesta Bowl with over six minutes still left in the game — and well before the Orange Bowl had kicked off. After doing so, Alabama defensive back and fan favorite Mark McMillion was injured on a play late in the game that many feared to be serious. (McMillion would play in all 12 games the following year in 1991 and have an eight-year career in the NFL.)

As for basketball games, those have primarily been broadcast on CBS, ABC/ESPN and, to a smaller degree, on Fox. Major college games haven’t been regularly broadcast on the national NBC network since it lost the rights to the NCAA Tournament to CBS in the 80s. Peacock began airing Big Ten football and basketball games in 2023.

To say the least, Alabama’s appearance on an NBC-owned platform — either broadcast or streaming — is a rarity these days.

Where to watch Alabama Crimson Tide vs Purdue Boilermakers tonight

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