Did BYU football turn down a chance to play Alabama?

Did BYU turn down a chance to play mighty Alabama in 2015? Jeremy Fowler, College Football Insider for CBSSports.com, notes in this article published Thursday that the Crimson Tide is so desperate for a 12th game to complete its 2015 college football schedule that athletic director Bill Battle claims to have called every school he knows in the country. Presumably, that means BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe got a call. As fate would have it, the Cougars are also looking for a 12th game to complete their 2015 schedule. Problem is, BYU needs a home game, and there's no way on God's green earth that Alabama would agree to travel to Provo. The Cougars have six road games and five home games scheduled for 2015, to date. Fowler writes: "Or what about BYU, whose independence creates scheduling issues in the College Football Playoff era?" "We've called everybody we know," Battle said. But oh, what could have been. As outlined below, BYU has openings on Sept. 19 and Oct. 2. Imagine an opening schedule that included Alabama with Nebraska, Boise State and Michigan.

In some 2014 football scheduling news, BYU announced Thursday that its Nov. 1 game at Middle Tennessee State will be televised by CBS Sports Network and kick off at 1:30 p.m. MT. BYU's 2015 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE Sept. 5 — at Nebraska Sept. 12 — Boise State Sept. 19 — OPEN Sept. 26 — at Michigan Oct. 2 — OPEN Oct. 10 — East Carolina Oct. 17 — at Southern Mississippi Oct. 24 — Cincinnati Oct. 31 — Connecticut Nov. 7 — at San Jose State Nov. 14 — at UNLV Nov. 21 — Fresno State Nov. 28 — at Utah State