Third Saturday in October

The Third Saturday in October, also known as the Alabama–Tennessee football rivalry, is an American college football rivalry game played annually by the Alabama Crimson Tide football team of the University of Alabama and Tennessee Volunteers football team of the University of Tennessee. It is known as the Third Saturday in October because the game was traditionally played on it prior to the 1992 football season, when the Southeastern Conference split into its Eastern and Western divisions. From 1995 to 2012, it has only been scheduled for that date six times.

Overall, Alabama leads the series with an official 49–38–7 record (50–37–8 on the field).

Series history
The first game between the two sides was played in 1901 in Birmingham, ending in a 6–6 tie. From 1902 to 1913, Alabama dominated the series, only losing once, and never allowing a touchdown by the Volunteers. Beginning in 1928, the rivalry was first played on its traditional date and began to be a challenge for the Tide as Robert Neyland began challenging Alabama for their perennial spot on top of the conference standings.

Between 1971 and 1981, Alabama held an eleven-game winning streak over the Volunteers and between 1986 and 1994, a nine-game unbeaten streak. However, following Alabama's streak, Tennessee responded with a seven-game winning streak from 1995 to 2001. Alabama won the most recent game 44–13 in 2012, and leads the series 49–38–7.

Victory cigars
In the 1950s, Jim Goostree, the head trainer for Alabama, began another tradition as he began handing out cigars following a victory over the Volunteers. Both teams continued the tradition for some time, though kept it secret due to NCAA rules concerning extra benefits and tobacco products. Alabama publicly restarted the tradition in 2005, though as a result, self-reported an NCAA violation before finally being banned following the violation.

Streaks
There have been several long winning streaks in the series. In the first major streak of the series, Bama won 7 straight over the Vols from 1905 to 1913 (the two teams did not play in 1910 and 1911), outscoring the Vols 112–0 in the process.

Alabama has the longest winning streak of the series, 11 games, from 1971 to 1981. It was broken in 1982 when Johnny Majors led the Vols to an upset victory over Bear Bryant and the Tide.

Alabama had a 9 game unbeaten streak from 1986 to 1994, including a tie in 1993 which was later forfeited due to NCAA sanctions. The streak was broken by Tennessee in 1995 when the Vols beat the Tide 41–14. Tennessee began their own seven-game win streak that night, which was broken when Alabama defeated the Vols 34–14 in 2002. Alabama currently enjoys a six-game winning streak in the series from 2007 to 2012 with an average margin of victory during this stretch of 21 points.

All time
Alabama leads the all–time series 49–38–7 (with the 1993 tie forfeited to Tennessee by Bama due to NCAA penalties, and the 2005 Bama victory vacated due to NCAA penalty). Due to this technicality, Tennessee actually has one more "official" contest in the series (the 2005 loss, which is officially not removed by the NCAA ruling), giving the Vols 38 wins to 50 losses in the series. Alabama has no official result (Win or Loss) for 2005, giving the Tide 49 wins to 38 losses in the series.

The game has been played in 3 different cities. Alabama leads the series in all three venues: for games played in Birmingham, Alabama, by a record of 21–14–6 (21–13–7 "on the field"), for those contested in Knoxville, Tennessee by a record of 23–20–1, and for games in the series played in Tuscaloosa by a record of 6–4 (7–4 "on the field"). Alabama won the last game, played on October 20, 2012, 44-13.

Game results
''Alabama victories are colored ██ crimson. Tennessee victories are colored ██ orange. Ties are white. Rankings are from the AP Poll''