Alabama to play Florida State in 2017 season opener

Alabama and Florida State will open the 2017 college football season against each other in what promises to be a showdown of epic proportions.

In a non-conference clash that will bring a financial windfall to both programs, Alabama and Florida State will open the 2017 season against each other, according to Tom D’Angelo of the Palm Beach Post.

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According to his report, Alabama and Florida State will receive between $4 and $5 million to open their respective seasons in the new Atlanta stadium that will be home to the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons.

The perennial powerhouse programs have combined to win four of the last six national championships and it wouldn’t be surprising to see this opener be a rematch of a College Football Playoff game from the year before. This will also be a game pitting the student against the teacher with Alabama head coach Nick Saban playing against his former offensive coordinator at LSU from 2000-2004 and won a national championship with the Tigers.

The 2017 opener will be the fifth meeting between the two programs, but the first since Florida State beat the Tide in 2007 by the score of 21-14. Alabama won the games in 1965 and 1974 and the two tied in 1967.

With two seasons to go before this meeting it is tough to get overly excited about the opener in 2017, but this contest does have the potential to be the game of the year if both programs maintain their level of dominance from now until then. Considering how well both programs have recruited in recent years, that should be a relatively easy task for Saban and Fisher.

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