Yes, FSU-Bama Might Actually Be the Greatest Opener Ever

It’s old news by now.

The excitement building for Florida State’s opener against Alabama — a match-up many are calling the greatest season opener in the history of college football — just keeps on increasing.

FSU and Alabama will, in fact, face off on Sept. 2, marking the first non-preseason game in Atlanta’s shiny new Mercedes-Benz Superdome and the first match-up between the two storied programs since 2007.

The decade that passed since that meeting in Jacksonville provided just enough time for both programs to completely transform into two national powers.

Those 2007 teams? They finished with identical 7-6 records, not including vacated wins.

The last time FSU finished a season with four or more losses was 2011, and Alabama has finished with no more than two since 2010.

The sides have little history between them — the two programs have faced off just four times in total — but the opening week match-up will provide a rich testament to the work that both FSU head coach Jimbo Fisher and Alabama’s Nick Saban have done to their respective programs.

And while a win against the Crimson Tide looks unlikely at first glance – Alabama is undefeated in season openers dating back to 2002 – Fisher believes that his team will be up to the challenge.

“I scheduled it,” Fisher said a press conference before the start of fall practice, “so I better be ready for it.

“It’s going to be the two highest ranked teams to ever play in a college football opener. And the last seven years it’s the two winningest teams in college football.”

And if Alabama and FSU debut at No. 1 and No. 2 respectively when the AP Poll is released on Aug. 21, the hype will increase even more — if that’s even possible.

“To possibly have No. 1 against No. 2 in the first game of the season is a credit to the programs that Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher have built,” Peach Bowl CEO Gary Stokan said. “Their willingness to play this game shows their desire to compete at the highest level.”

“We knew this was going to be a special game,” Peach Bowl Inc. chairman Percy Vaughn said, “but I’m not sure we fully expected it to reach historic levels like this.”

The two programs are responsible for five of the last eight national championships and have both reached New Year’s Six bowls in every year since 2012. The Tide enter 2017 coming off two consecutive national championship appearances, while the Noles defeated Michigan — a team which many thought deserved a College Football Playoff invite — in the Orange Bowl to conclude 2016.

The Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Game is even billing itself as the G.O.A.T. — the Greatest Opener of All Time.

Thing is, that might not be wrong.

“When you’re a competitor, you want to measure yourself against the guys that are highly competitive and highly successful,” Fisher said. “It was great learning under [Saban], but we went in our different directions.

“It’s going to be a highly competitive football game.”

Josh Mixon covers Florida State athletics for The Daily Nole. He previously served as a editor and reporter for FSU athletics for Armchair All-Americans. You can find him on Twitter here.