A missed kick. An overtime thriller. A national championship rematch.
When Alabama and LSU meet on a football field, the history between the two SEC powers has a way of turning an ordinary November Saturday into something much bigger.
In fact, we ranked it No. 17 among the 25 rivalries that define college football.
The programs first met in 1895 in Baton Rouge, where LSU claimed a 12-6 victory.
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More than 130 years later, the Crimson Tide and Tigers have played 90 times, with Alabama holding a 58-27-5 advantage in a series that has delivered some of college football’s most consequential games.
The rivalry reached another level during the late 2000s and early 2010s, when Alabama, under Nick Saban, and LSU regularly competed for SEC supremacy and national championship opportunities.
And few games captured that intensity quite like the one that came to be known as “The Game of the Century.”
The Game of the Century
On Nov. 5, 2011, No. 1 LSU traveled to Tuscaloosa to face No. 2 Alabama in a matchup that had the feel of a national championship game months before the postseason began.
The defenses lived up to the billing. Neither team scored a touchdown, and Alabama missed several field-goal opportunities that could have changed the outcome.
After regulation ended in a 6-6 tie, LSU kicker Drew Alleman connected on a 25-yard field goal in overtime. The Tigers escaped with a 9-6 victory, handing Alabama its only regular-season loss of the year.
But the story wasn’t finished.
The teams met again two months later in the BCS national championship game in New Orleans. This time, Alabama dominated, shutting out LSU 21-0 behind five field goals from Jeremy Shelley and a touchdown run by Trent Richardson.
The rematch remains one of the most unusual chapters in college football history: two teams meeting twice in the same season, with the national title ultimately going to the team that lost the first game.
LSU’s dramatic return to the top
Alabama controlled much of the rivalry over the following years, but LSU continued to produce moments that reminded the Crimson Tide that a trip to Baton Rouge was never a formality.
The Tigers’ most memorable recent victory came on Nov. 5, 2022, when they hosted No. 6 Alabama in a game filled with momentum swings.
LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels helped rally the Tigers in the fourth quarter, and the teams traded scores in a back-and-forth finish that extended into overtime.
After Daniels scored on a 25-yard run, LSU coach Brian Kelly elected to go for two points rather than settle for a tie. Daniels found tight end Mason Taylor in the end zone, completing a 32-31 upset that sent Tiger Stadium into a frenzy.
It was LSU’s first victory over Alabama since 2019 and a defining moment in Kelly’s first season in Baton Rouge.
The day LSU ended Alabama’s streak
The 2022 thriller followed another landmark LSU victory three years earlier.
On Nov. 9, 2019, No. 2 LSU arrived in Tuscaloosa to face No. 3 Alabama in a showdown between undefeated teams with national championship ambitions.
LSU quarterback Joe Burrow delivered a performance worthy of the occasion, throwing for 393 yards and three touchdowns while leading the Tigers’ explosive offense against Alabama’s defense.
The Tigers built a 33-13 halftime lead and held off Alabama’s second-half rally to win 46-41.
The victory ended Alabama’s eight-game winning streak in the series and helped propel LSU toward an undefeated season and the national championship.
For a rivalry often defined by defensive struggles and field goals, the 2019 meeting offered a very different kind of classic.
A rivalry built on more than one era
The Alabama-LSU series stretches well beyond its most famous modern matchups.
Alabama won 11 straight games from 1971-81, while LSU enjoyed its own periods of success, including a five-game winning streak that ended in 2002.
The rivalry has also featured plenty of close finishes. Alabama won in overtime in Baton Rouge in 2008 and 2014, while LSU’s 2022 victory came down to a two-point conversion in the extra period.
Even with Alabama’s overall advantage, the series has consistently produced games that matter to both fan bases — whether the stakes involve an SEC title, a national championship or simply the satisfaction of beating a familiar opponent.
The programs have also shared a connection through Saban, who coached LSU from 2000-04 before leading Alabama from 2007-23.
His return to Baton Rouge as Alabama’s coach in 2008 added another layer to a rivalry that had already become one of the SEC’s defining matchups.
Another chapter in Baton Rouge
No. 9 Alabama (6-2, 4-2 SEC) and No. 15 LSU (6-2, 3-2) will meet again Saturday, Nov. 7, (3:30 p.m. ET/ABC) at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, with the loser all but eliminated from the College Football Playoff discussion.
The Crimson Tide have won the past three meetings, including a 20-9 victory in Tuscaloosa in 2025 and a 42-13 win in Baton Rouge in 2024.
But this year’s matchup brings a new subplot: Lane Kiffin is now leading the Tigers.
The former Alabama offensive coordinator, who worked on Saban’s staff in Tuscaloosa before returning to head coaching, now finds himself on the other side of one of the SEC’s most consequential rivalries.
His arrival gives LSU a coach with firsthand experience inside the Alabama program and adds another compelling layer to a matchup already rich in history and high stakes.
From the low-scoring tension of the 2011 classic to LSU’s championship run in 2019 and its overtime triumph in 2022, this matchup has repeatedly delivered moments that resonate well beyond the final score.
Now, with Kiffin leading the Tigers into the next chapter, the rivalry has a fresh storyline to go with its familiar intensity.
When Alabama returns to Tiger Stadium, both programs will have another chance to add to a series that has helped define SEC football for generations.
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Mike Garbett is a content specialist working with McClatchy’s Content Innovation Lab.