TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (WBRC) – The University of Alabama and the University of Oklahoma feature two of the most historic and iconic football programs in the history of collegiate athletics.

The two schools combine for 25 national championships, 11 Heisman Trophy winners, 84 conference championships and 166 consensus All-Americans.

While the two have met seven times on the football field in their prestigious history, Saturday will mark the first time as conference opponents.

Alabama and Oklahoma first met on January 1, 1963 in the Orange Bowl. Alabama won that game 17-0.

Their next meeting ended in a 24-24 tie in the 1970 Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl.

They would not meet again in 32 years when the Tide and Sooners played a home-and-home series in 2002 and 2003. Oklahoma won both of those.

In the Nick Saban era of Alabama football, the two played each other twice.

The Sooners won the 2013 Sugar Bowl 45-31 and Alabama won the 2018 Orange Bowl 45-34.

But all that history doesn’t mean much in 2024.

Alabama is in its first year under head coach Kalen DeBoer with losses to Vanderbilt and Tennessee. Oklahoma, in its third year with Brent Venables, has not done as well as it had hoped in its first season as SEC members.

The Sooners, along with Texas, were met with great fanfare as the newest members of the Southeastern Conference. Since then, however, the Sooners sit near the bottom of the conference with just one win in SEC play.

Meanwhile, once thought to be eliminated from contention with two losses, Alabama is right back in the race for the SEC Championship and the College Football Playoff.

Alabama currently sits as a 14-point favorite over the Sooners when they travel to Norman Saturday.

Kick-off is scheduled for 18.30

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