With the season more than half over, the time has come for the NCAA’s top teams to face off with each other in anticipation of bowl season. This means that top competitors in each conference will finally meet, losing or gaining a spot in the College Football Playoffs in the process. One of the biggest matchups of the season will take place on Saturday when the LSU Tigers and Alabama Crimson Tide face off in an SEC battle, but when is the actual game?
Given that these two teams both rank in the top three and are on a path to the playoffs, it’s expected that they would get primetime billing on Saturday. However, this game is not taking place at night. Instead, LSU and Alabama will play at 3:30 p.m. EST on CBS. As the top announcing team for SEC games, Brad Nessler, Gary Danielson and Jamie Erdahl will be the ones tasked with narrating this matchup of heavyweights.
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While the battle on the field is the biggest draw for viewers, there will certainly be another storyline taking place. President Donald Trump has announced that he will be in attendance for the SEC battle, making this the third time in mere weeks that he was present for a major sporting event. He also attended a game during the World Series and was on hand for UFC 244.
“I love Alabama,” Trump said, per USA Today. “I’m going to go watch a very good football game on Saturday with LSU. And it’s going to be great.”
Alabama is currently a slight favorite to win and are six-point favorites. One reason for this is that Nick Saban’s team hasn’t lost to LSU since 2011, in a game known as the “Game of the Century.” Since that defeat, Alabama has won eight consecutive matchups, including a victory in the 2011 BCS National Championship.
Of course, this year’s iteration should be slightly different considering that LSU quarterback Joe Burrow is a Heisman Trophy favorite. Through eight games, he has thrown for nearly 3,000 yards and has a career-high 30 passing touchdowns.
On the other side, Alabama should see the return of their own Heisman candidate in quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who missed the victory over Arkansas after undergoing a surgical procedure to fix a high ankle sprain. He is expected to play, per Saban, and will be tasked with taking down one of the SEC’s best teams in LSU.
(Photo Credit: John Korduner/Icon Sportswire/Getty)
