Week 0 of the college football season is upon us. Before the majority of teams kick things off next week, a few select games will give college football fans their fix after a long offseason.

One of those games on Saturday will feature Florida State against Georgia Tech inside Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland. The matchup is the fourth iteration of the Aer Lingus College Football Classic, which featured Notre Dame and Navy last season in a game played in front of a sold-out crowd of 49,000.

Alabama’s furthest trip this season will be 870 miles north to Madison, Wisconsin to face the Wisconsin Badgers. While that trip will be a unique one for Tide fans who may have yet to venture to Big Ten country, what about an even more exotic away day across the pond for a nonconference matchup?

Alabama has never played a game abroad. But when asked Thursday about a potential Tide trip across the pond, first-year coach Kalen DeBoer didn’t rule out the possibility.

“I think there’s a right time,” DeBoer said. “When you’ve been at a program for a while and you want to continue to expand, things like that. I’ve looked into those different times, different places. I think it’d be tough the first year or two to do something like that, but there’s just more and more things you want to put in front of those guys and experiences you want to give them. So I think that’s pretty cool.”

It might be a few years before Alabama schedules a game abroad. But if the Tide does eventually elect to play a game in another country it would likely have its pick of potential destinations given its brand, appeal and the increase in football games played internationally.

The Aer Lingus College Football Classic has been played in Ireland for the past three seasons, with future matchups already scheduled in 2025 and 2027. The NFL also hosts games in several international locations, including London, Munich and Mexico City. The NFL will add São Paulo, Brazil to that list when the Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles play there in 2024.

Should college football continue to expand its international footprint, the Crimson Tide could perhaps be the first SEC team to make the trip to Ireland, or travel to another unique destination for its first game outside the U.S. While DeBoer might consider the possibility down the road, for now, his attention turns to transitioning from fall camp into game week ahead of Alabama’s 2023 season opener against Western Kentucky on Aug. 31.