I guess I can see how you are confused @Boodles, but not really, so don’t overthink it! You can either pick your roommates first, before you pick housing, OR you can pick your housing first, and then (by default) you will not have picked roommates. If you pick housing first (before you pick roommates), you’ll have to go random with roommates, because otherwise you would have already picked them(!). This was asked by you, and answered by @“beth’s mom” in another thread: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-alabama/1917891-ua-dorms.html#latest
She said it best: “As for the roommate, you can go either way. You can choose a room during room selection and get a random roommate, or you can find a roommate prior to room selection, through Roommate Finder or FB or other means, and choose a room together.” 