Saban likes the tough first game because if he wins, he looks great and talks about it all year long. If he loses then he just says, well that was the 1st game and we are a much better team now. Guy also plays schools like Mercer in November.
Plus they love neutral site games because it also prevents them from having a true road test out of conference. The last time they played an actual out of conference road game was Penn State in 2011.
Past/Future OOC matchups for Alabama since then...
2020: USC (Arlington, TX)
2019: Duke (Atlanta, GA)
2018: Louisville (Orlando, FL)
2017: Florida State (Atlanta, GA)
2016: USC (Arlington, TX)
2015: Wisconsin (Arlington, TX)
2014: West Virginia (Atlanta, GA)
2013: Virginia Tech (Atlanta, GA)
2012: Michigan (Arlington, TX)
Interestingly enough, back in 2010 Duke managed to get Alabama to travel to Durham, North Carolina and play in their tiny stadium. Although, I'll admit Duke was terrible back then and it was the BCS era.