Capital City Classic: Auburn vs. Alabama

Alex Byington | Montgomery Advertiser

TUSCALOOSA — An annual springtime tradition that brings thousands to downtown Montgomery has been placed on a one-year hiatus due to a scheduling conflict.

The MAX Capital City Classic between the Alabama and Auburn baseball teams — a March staple at Montgomery’s Riverwalk Stadium for the last 11 years — won’t be held in 2020 after a change in the Southeastern Conference schedule prompted both programs to reconsider participating in the annual nonconference game next season. The 2020 conference series between Alabama and Auburn is set for March 27-29 in Tuscaloosa.

“When the 2020 SEC schedule was released having us and Auburn playing in March, we didn’t think it made sense to play (a) midweek so close to the weekend series,” Alabama head coach Brad Bohannon said in a statement provided to the Advertiser. “It’s a wonderful event that we are open to potentially continuing in the future.”

Auburn head coach Butch Thompson declined comment through a spokesperson.

{{props.notification}} {{props.tag}} {{props.expression}} {{props.linkSubscribe.text}} {{#modules.acquisition.inline}}{{/modules.acquisition.inline}} ... Our reporting. Your stories. Get unlimited digital access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now

Montgomery Biscuits general manager Mike Murphy confirmed the nonconference series, which was once again scheduled for late March, would be put on hold next year at the request of both schools.

“Unfortunately, it was just a scheduling conflict between the schools,” Murphy said Thursday. “There was a little change in the SEC scheduling where the available date that we’ve had held, which would’ve timed up with when the date has been for the last several years towards the end of March, was the week before they would play their SEC weekend series.”

The Capital City Classic annually draws more than 6,000 people to Riverwalk Stadium and the downtown Montgomery area, including back-to-back record-breaking crowds the past two years with attendance topping out at 7,896 this past March and 7,719 in 2018.

Mickey Welsh / Advertiser

“We understand a scheduling conflict with the teams has caused them not to play in 2020 in a Classic game environment,” Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange said in a statement Thursday. “We appreciate the longstanding relationship we have had with the MAX Capital City Classic and look forward to its return in 2021. Thankfully, our tourism and travel industry has reached unprecedented levels the past few years thanks to myriad opportunities.”

The MAX Capital City Classic has been scheduled between March 26-29 the last four years, with the SEC series slated during the first weekend in May three of those four years and in late April in 2018. The conference matchup between Alabama and Auburn was played in early- to mid-May in six of the first 11 years of the Capital City Classic.

“There is no particular reason that series is in March this year,” SEC Associate Commissioner Herb Vincent said in an email Thursday. “Baseball schedules depend on a number of different factors including final exams for schools, various campus conflicts like graduation, other athletics events and special events that may require a school to play on the road or at home on a particular weekend, avoiding too many consecutive road weekends and other factors, all of which are used to determine how the series are placed within the schedule each year.

“It is essentially a Rubik’s Cube where the placement of every series effects every other series since there are no open date weekends for any school within the conference schedule.”

Jake Crandall/ Advertiser

Murphy said there was initially some discussion in August about possibly moving the Capital City Classic to earlier in March to avoid bumping up to the Alabama-Auburn SEC series, but there was no flexibility within either team’s previously scheduled nonconference games.

“There was some back-and-forth about it and kind of all parties agreed the scheduling wasn’t going to work out this year, and we’re moving forward in trying to get those future dates planned,” Murphy said. “There were plenty of discussions about looking at alternative dates, but because both schools have their nonconference schedule pretty much booked (ahead of time), it just wasn’t a possibility for this season.”

Alabama plays a road game against UAB at Legions Field in Birmingham on March 10 before opening SEC play against Missouri the following weekend. The Crimson Tide, which is now scheduled to travel to Missouri State on March 18, also hosts South Alabama and North Alabama in back-to-back midweek games (March 3-4) between home series against Harvard and Lipscomb Feb. 28-March 8.

Auburn has not announced its 2020 baseball schedule yet.

The Capital City Classic is scheduled on a year-by-year basis and no future dates have been mutually agreed-upon as of yet, according to Murphy. That said, there have been ongoing discussions about resuming the series in 2021 and moving forward.

“We’ve enjoyed the relationship with both universities so hopefully we can continue that relationship moving forward for as long as possible,” Murphy said, adding: “We’ll do everything in our power to make sure it returns.”

The Capital City Classic is an annual arrangement between Alabama, Auburn and the Montgomery Biscuits organization, which plays its home games at Riverwalk Stadium.

Auburn owns a commanding 9-2 advantage in the 11-year series, including winning the previous four straight before last year’s 6-3 Alabama victory.

Between 1990 to 1996, the two in-state rivals met for a nonconference game at nearby Patterson Field in Montgomery.