Alabama football playing ‘home away from home’ in Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game

Alabama football makes its home in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, but Atlanta has become a sort of home away from home for the Crimson Tide.

If you are an Alabama football player, you like the sound of “game to be played in Atlanta”, where the Crimson Tide have made their comfortable second football home.

The Chick-fil-A Kickoff game is one of the most-watched and anticipated games of the early season every year. The event, now hosted in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, has seen some important early-season matchups and has even played a part in how the BCS and College Football Playoff took shape in past seasons.

In 2019, Alabama and Duke will face off on August 31, and for the Blue Devils that could mean bad news. Not simply because they have to square off against the No. 2 team in the nation, but because when an Alabama football game is in Atlanta, it’s essentially a home game for the Crimson Tide.

Alabama Crimson Tide Football

How much at home have the Crimson Tide made themselves in the capital of the Peach State?

Alabama is 5-0 in Chick-fil-A Kickoff Games, with the average margin of victory being 10.4 points. The lowest ranking Alabama has ever had coming into this game was No. 24 in 2008. Every other appearance they’ve been ranked in the top five. Following two of their previous five appearances in this game, Alabama has won a national championship.

How about the SEC Championship Game, played annually (with the exception of 1992 and 1993) in Atlanta, you ask? It just gets uglier.

Alabama has appeared in 12 SEC Championship Games (more than any other school) and has played 10 of those games in Atlanta, with a 7-3 record.

Bowl games? Sure, why not.

In the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, Alabama is carrying a 1-0 record, beating Washington in the 2016 National Semifinal Game. They followed that up with a victory over Georgia in the 2018 National Championship Game, played in Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

That makes the Crimson Tide a staggering 14-3 overall playing in Atlanta, with an even more incredulous 13-1 record under Nick Saban in those games.

Oh, and by the way, the Tide hold a perfect 3-0 mark while playing in Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

I’d say that makes Atlanta a very comfortable second home for Nick Saban and his troops. But why has this become such a place of comfort for not only the team but fans of the Crimson Tide as well?

Obviously, distance plays a factor. Tuscaloosa is a mere three-hour drive from Atlanta, with other major Alabama cities such as Birmingham and Montgomery being just over two hours away. It’s barely even a day trip to come to a game for Tide fans. Heck, most Atlantans sit in traffic longer than that on a daily basis.

Familiarity is another factor. During the Nick Saban era, Alabama has played at least one game in Atlanta every year except 2007, 2010 and 2011.  They played two games per year there in 2008, 2009, and 2014.

Hence, home away from home.

It’s not surprising some Alabama football fans would consider the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game as the team’s home opener.