Over the years we have seen teams from the Power 5 conferences come under fire for scheduling soft out of conference games. In an effort to change this we are starting to see some of the big schools schedule stiffer competition. There are reports saying that Alabama and Florida State are in talks to schedule a season opener against each other in 2017 in Atlanta.
The Palm Beach Post and the Tallahassee Democrat each reported Tuesday that Florida State and Alabama are in discussions to possibly open the 2017 season against each other in Atlanta. The last meeting between the ACC and SEC powerhouses was also played in a neutral venue, with the Seminoles winning in rainy Jacksonville in 2007.
Florida State opened this season with a neutral-site game against Oklahoma State in Cowboys Stadium, and has already scheduled a 2016 kickoff game in Orlando against the Tide’s fellow SEC West rivals at Ole Miss.
Alabama has been no stranger to neutral-venue openers in recent seasons, most recently defeating West Virginia in Atlanta to kick off its 2014 season. But per the Palm Beach Post,the Seminoles may not have been the Tide’s first choice for 2017, and may still not be their choice at all:
Alabama had approached Miami about the 2017 game, but the Hurricanes opted to open the 2018 season against LSU in Arlington and did not want to open successive seasons against Alabama and LSU.
Alabama reportedly has also had discussions with Penn State and USC about playing in 2017.
I really hope this gets done. College football needs more matchups like this instead of teams scheduling easy wins outside of their conference schedule . Instead of having to wait for potential matchups to shake out for the postseason, now we get to see them early on and see how the teams will do against tough early season competition.