Michigan Football Bowl Game vs. Alabama: ReliaQuest Time, TV, Prediction

A trip to Tampa, Florida in late December? Could be much, much worse.

Michigan football learned Sunday that it will play No. 11 Alabama Alabama in the ReliaQuest Bowl at Raymond James Stadium on New Year’s Eve. This will be the Wolverines’ fourth straight trip to the postseason, but their first bowl game outside of the College Football Playoff since 2019, when the Wolverines lost 35-15 to Alabama in the Citrus Bowl.

Speaking of the Crimson Tide, this will be the second straight postseason the Wolverines face Alabama after defeating Nick Saban and Co. in the Rose Bowl in January to advance to the CFP Championship Game.

But that’s just the beginning of the many layers of exciting storylines for this year’s rematch.

The victory for Jim Harbaugh’s Wolverines ended up being the final game of the legendary career of Saban, who called it a day after many epic seasons and national titles and joined ESPN’s “College GameDay.” Who did the Tide ask to replace Saban? Of course, Kalen DeBoer, the head coach of…you guessed it, Washington, which eventually beat Michigan in the national championship.

Your head doesn’t hurt yet? Well, the Crimson Tide had a solid first year under DeBoer, finishing 9-3 overall, but suffered some frustrating losses, namely to Vanderbilt (6-6) and Oklahoma (6-6). That left the Crimson Tide vulnerable, and the College Football Playoff committee, chaired by Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel, decided that SMU from the ACC was more deserving of a spot in the 12-team field and snubbed Alabama.

READ ABOUT THE MATCHUP:Michigan football plays Alabama in the ReliaQuest Bowl in Tampa on New Year’s Eve

Now DeBoer and his associates have a quick opportunity to exact revenge on multiple fronts.

The ReliaQuest Bowl will be played at Raymond James Stadium, home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Michigan fans should be familiar with the bowl game, even if they remember it as the “Outback Bowl,” as it was called from 1996 to 2022. This is the Wolverines’ seventh time playing in the bowl game, and they have a 3-3 record in their last six games.

While bowl games are no longer the big events they were before college football’s postseason expansion, landing in the ReliaQuest Bowl with a matchup against Alabama is as exciting as it gets.

Prediction for the Michigan vs. Alabama football bowl game

While nothing is official, it’s safe to say that both teams will likely play without many of their star players, as is typically the case with non-playoff bowl games these days. That makes it inherently difficult to predict what might happen when these squads take the stage on New Year’s Eve, but there’s no stopping here. While the Wolverines would normally be a big underdog based on how the regular season went, everything was turned on its head in the final two weeks of the year. Alabama was surprisingly knocked out by Oklahoma in Week 13, while the Wolverines pulled off a stunning win of their own in Week 14, defeating Ohio State for the fourth straight year.

But what does this mean for the bowl game? Probably not much. At this early point in the DeBoer regime, the Tide will still be able to sell this as an opportunity to create momentum. And while the same could probably be said about the Wolverines, if they don’t have Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant on the interior defensive line, they won’t be able to slow down the Crimson Tide attack, which is still a double Second-year threat includes QB Jalen Milroe. Sherrone Moore and the Wolverines got off to a good start, scoring the game’s first touchdown, but the Tide roared back and blew the Wolverines out of the water to get revenge on DeBoer. But with a new coordinator and quarterback arriving soon, no one is sleeping in Ann Arbor. The choice: Alabama 35, Michigan 14.

OPINION:Zero dark money flipped by Bryce Underwood should worry Michigan

Odds for the Michigan vs. Alabama Football Bowl game

Early distribution: Still open.
Money line: Still open.
Total points over/under: Still open.

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