Report: Alabama and Florida State to play in 2017 season opener

Written by Ryan Wright

 

Friday evening Palm Beach Post writer Tom D’Angelo broke news on Twitter that an epic season opener will happen in 2017, Alabama vs. Florida State.

D’Angelo’s Twitter post read, “BREAKING: Sources: #FSU #Alabama game in Atlanta to open 17 season set. Agreement in place. Story to come.”

If the contract pitting these two college football powerhouses against one another to be played in the new Atlanta Falcons stadium does get signed, for college football fans the matchup who could ask for more? The game would be hyped as a “game of the century” kind of affair and as long as the current dominance of both programs continues on in 2015 and 2016 the hype will be well served.

Of the last five college football national championships Alabama (2011 and 2012) and Florida State (2013) have won three titles between the two programs with Auburn (2010) and Ohio State (2014) capturing hardware for the other two seasons. When the 2014 season came to a close in the first ever FBS college football playoffs Florida State was ousted by Oregon State 59-20 and Alabama was dismissed by eventual champs OSU 42-35 leaving both Crimson Tide and Seminoles fans wondering “what if” about the potential dream matchup between their respective programs for a national title.

The 2017 game would have other under tones including former Nick Saban offensive coordinator at LSU, Jimbo Fisher, squaring off against his former employer, a teacher-pupil clash of wits.

The last time the two teams met on the gridiron was in Jacksonville, Florida with FSU coming out a head 21-14 in Sept. 2007. Since the two times first took the field against one another in 1965, Alabama holds a 4-2 win-loss record over FSU. Although Bama holds an edge over the ACC titan the series history has been decided by an average of 3.8 points per game.

With the current layout of a college football playoff system football programs can and are encouraged to take certain risks with non-conference scheduling. Alabama has been at the forefront of scheduling tough non-conference games to start the season lining up against Virginia Tech (2013) and West Virginia (2014) and will face Wisconsin (2015), and USC (2016) this season and next year.

 

Photo credit: spinw.com; Nick Saban leads the Crimson Tide out onto the field.