BIRMINGHAM — It took less than five minutes of clock time for The Feud to be aptly named.
Alabama basketball tangled with archrival Auburn in an exhibition game at Legacy Arena Thursday, Oct. 23, and won 87-84 − and it didn't take long for the tangling to go individual. With the Tigers leading 11-9 just before the first media timeout, Crimson Tide forward Keitenn Bristow and Auburn forward Thomas Dowd, all 430 combined pounds of them, hit the floor with a thud to battle for a rebound.
Four hands wrestled for it, and after the whistle blew, none of the four came off the ball. Things got chippy. Other players gathered and tangled a bit themselves. UA coach Nate Oats stepped straight into the commotion and offered an earful to Auburn's Kevin Overton, the nearest official and Auburn coach Steven Pearl, who also joined the fray. In the aftermath, four technical fouls hit the scoresheet. No legit punches were thrown, but neither team was there for niceties.
It was March Madness-level intensity, but in October. And a beautiful thing.
A fairly evenly split crowd went berserk, of course, and it was no small gathering. Legacy Arena's lower bowl was packed, and the vast majority of its upper deck was full (capacity 17,654). They exploded with all the passion these teams will engender when they meet twice in the forthcoming regular season (at Alabama Jan. 30, at Auburn March 6). And they were treated to a closely-contested battle that never lacked for an edge. Back and forth they went, trading baskets with 12 lead changes, delivering some serious rivalry entertainment.
HIGHLIGHTS: Auburn threatens Alabama basketball late in exhibition: Live updates, highlights
THE FEUD: See Auburn basketball vs Alabama get chippy early in exhibition
They used to bring their football teams to Birmingham for a game that was anything but an exhibition, back when Iron Bowls made Legion Field tremble once a year. And while there were good reasons for making Alabama-Auburn football a campus home-and-home series, there was nothing quite like the 50-50 crowd split, at 80,000-plus, that a neutral site created.
It's been 28 years since the last Birmingham Iron Bowl, but here in 2026, exhibition basketball will still pack a house with orange- and crimson-clad yellers and screamers.
Contrast that with the atmosphere in a standard exhibition game against a weaker opponent − UA drew a few thousand for a home showing against Furman two weeks ago − and it's a no-brainer to make this event annual. It makes too much sense, and judging by the size of the crowd, too much money.
Most of all, the players – at least in this first-edition run – treated it like it meant something to them. They pushed and scrapped and dove on the floor. They played defense and threw elbows. And as Bristow and Dowd proved, they didn't mind getting testy, either.
They feuded at The Feud.
And there's no reason not to do it again in 12 months.
Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on X.com @chasegoodbread.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Make this chippy Alabama-Auburn basketball feud annual | Goodbread