Jacksonville State Coach Rich Rodriguez Open to Alabama Matchup for Multi-Million Dollar Payout

Jacksonville State’s head football coach, Rich Rodriguez, made a lighthearted comment about facing Alabama on the field — for the right price. During the weekly “Rich Rod Show,” hosted by Eli Gold every Monday evening in Jacksonville, a caller asked Rodriguez about encouraging more in-state football matchups in Alabama.

The caller mentioned Alabama’s season opener against Western Kentucky, wondering why Alabama doesn’t play more in-state teams.

“If they want to pay me $2 million, I’ll be there on Saturday and Sunday, play them twice, get $4 million, and help our budget,” Rodriguez joked. “They can beat us for a couple million dollars, no problem."

Rodriguez even suggested he’d call his friend Greg Byrne, Alabama’s Athletic Director, to propose the idea. “I’ll tell Greg, we’ll come down for $2 million, and if they want a back-to-back game, we’ll do it for $4 million and have a great time. I’ll even sing ‘Roll Tide’ for them if they want.”

Rodriguez has a history with Byrne, who hired him as the head coach at Arizona from 2012 to 2017.

He also shared a story from his time at West Virginia, where the team had to play Marshall, another in-state school. “In West Virginia, Marshall was the other Division I team. At West Virginia, you’re expected to beat Marshall, right? So, I wasn’t really in favor of playing them. But we did, and thankfully, we won.”

Interestingly, Alabama hasn’t played an in-state team other than Auburn since 1944, when they faced Howard, now known as Samford, according to research done by news.

Jacksonville State has future games scheduled against Auburn (2026) and UAB (2027 and 2028). Rodriguez also mentioned that he hopes to schedule a game against Troy in the future.