My wife is a USA grad, so we go to four or five games a year. Ladd-Peebles is a dump, but it's a dump that sells beer -- and at reasonable prices. We have friends that tailgate, and it's a decent atmosphere outside. They're all Bama or Auburn fans, so they already had experience at the whole deal. There is overnight tailgating available, but I don't know what they do to accommodate visitors. The stadium tailgate area is the only area that's available, I'm sure. The neighborhood is not the greatest, but we pay to park in the neighborhood yards and have only felt the danger one time at night. I'd get out of dodge when the sun goes down if you park outside the stadium. The stadium parking requires a pass.
If we stay overnight, we stay at the Admiral Semmes downtown, about a block from Dauphin Street. It's an older hotel that's been sold a couple times recently, and it feels like the quality is slipping. But from there, it's not a bad cab ride to the stadium if you have a group. Make sure you have the cab company's phone number after the game, because there's no set place to get in line for cabs after.
It'll be interesting to see if they take the tarps off the endzone seating to maximize profits. They played Troy last year and there were a ton of fans down for that game.