Alabama Crimson Tide

Report Alabama has exclusive Cowboys Classic rights in 2019 or '20

Published Jun. 21, 2015 8:07 p.m. ET

foxsports

Alabama is scheduled to play in the Cowboys Classic at AT&T Stadium in each of the next two seasons, first against Wisconsin this year and then against USC in 2016.

And it appears that they'll be back again soon. According to AL.com, per the terms of Alabama's contract, the Crismon Tide have exclusive negotiating rights for the Cowboys Classic game in either 2019 or 2020. The contract states that Alabama will "negotiate exclusively with ESPN in good faith through August 31, 2015 in an effort to schedule a football game between Alabama and a non-conference opponent to be held on August 31, 2019 or September 5, 2020 at (AT&T) Stadium."

In other words, Alabama and ESPN will collectively seek an opponent for the game, which could be held in either of those two seasons, depending on what the parties involved are able to negotiate.

The contract has a pretty nice kicker for the Tide, too: Alabama will receive a $6 million payment for its involvement and "a minimum of $1,000,000 more than their opponent for the 2019 or 2020 game."

That amount would be more than the Tide are scheduled to be paid for this year's contest ($4.5 million) and just slightly less than they'll get for next year's highly anticipated game against USC ($6.5 million).

(h/t al.com)

Image credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports