🏈 2017 season: OOC schedule now includes FSU and Fresno State

[BAMANEWSBOT]

With high-profile season openers against Wisconsin and Southern California already locked up for the next two years, Alabama is continuing to think big when it comes to its early-season non-conference opposition.

A rumored matchup with Florida State appears set to kick off the 2017 season, with the Tide slated to play the Seminoles in the new Atlanta Falcons Stadium at an unspecified time and date, according to a report Friday by the Palm Beach Post’s Tom D’Angelo.

The game features two programs that combined to claim four of the final five BCS national championships between 2009-13, and continues Alabama’s recent trend of scheduling elite Power Five competition to open the season against, joining Wisconsin this upcoming season (Sept. 5) and USC to begin the 2016 season (Sept. 3, 2016), with both games at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

The potential matchup was first reported as a possibility by Tomahawknation.com in March.

The last time Alabama and FSU squared off, the Seminoles — in the first season with head coach Jimbo Fisher as offensive coordinator — knocked off the Tide 21-14 on Sept. 29, 2007, in Alabama head coach Nick Saban’s first season at the helm. The game was also a neutral-site game played in the former Jacksonville Municipal Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida.

It also pits pupil against teacher for the first time as head coaches with Fisher once serving as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach under Saban during their time at LSU (2000-06).


Decatur Daily—Continue reading...

 

[BamaFan334]

I'll be there for that bad boy. Gonna be tough to miss this one and the one next year against USC.

 

[UAgrad93]

I'm in! Need some payback from that '07 game in Jacksonville.

 

[BAMANEWSBOT]

Alabama adds Fresno State to 2017 slate

Alabama's 2017 non-conference football schedule is rapidly taking shape after a reported season opener against Florida State was announced earlier this weekend.

The Crimson Tide will reportedly pay Fresno State $1.4 million to play a game at Bryant-Denny Stadium on a yet-to-be announced date during the 2017 season, according to the Fresno Bee.

It'll be the first game between Alabama and Fresno State, which is considered one of the top teams in the Mountain West Conference, having made the conference title game each of the past two seasons under former Texas A&M defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter.

The game against Fresno State would be the third non-conference matchup on Alabama's 2017 slate, joining Florida State and a game with Colorado State that was scheduled in 2012.

The Palm Beach Post reported Friday that Alabama and Florida State had agreed to play one another in the 2017 season opener in Atlanta, at the site of the new stadium of the Atlanta Falcons set to open that year, though no formal contract has been finalized according to the report.

The Tide and the Seminoles will reportedly each receive between $4 million and 5 million for their participation in the game, per the Palm Beach Post.

Alabama is scheduled to net $10.5 million in season-opening games at Cowboy Stadium over the next two seasons, beginning with a game against Wisconsin on Sept. 5, and another against Southern California to open the 2016 season.


Decatur Daily—Continue reading...

 

[planomateo]

The Fresno State perspective. I forgot DeRuyter went there.

http://www.fresnobee.com/sports/col...-state/bulldogs-football/article25085662.html