How FSU vs. Alabama came about.

[john4psu]

https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/alabama-football/alabama-fsu-matchup-came-together-2017/

Home openers are nice (even against lesser opponents) but not quite the sizzle of our marquee openers in East Meadowlands against USC, (Curtis Enis was a beast that day). We've also had openers against Georgia Tech and Nebraska and UCF in Dublin.



The thought that openers against non-conference opponents at neutral sites becoming seemingly more popular and here to stay led me to post the link.

 

[BisbeeMike]

What they are looking for is the marquis win for their argument at the end of the season. If they get it, then they can afford one loss because of the size of the pelt from that one game. Even if they lose the game, they then have the comparitive loss advantage over most other teams with just one loss. It's still a gamble, in that they are gambling that they, then will not lose any other game during the season, because two losses will take them out of the playoff, we PRESUME, at the moment. The neutral site gives them another plus, in that if they win, it's not a home win, and if they lose, it's not an away loss either. Then when you add in the money, it makes sense for these teams to do this. The biggest gamble to me is FSU, which I believe could very easily lose to Alabama, and that in conference slate is not easy, not to mention the Gators at the end of the year. I think Florida St needs that game much more than Alabama, who might just cruise again with so few road games. As far as Florida vs Michigan, I am not sure it carries quite as much weight for Michigan as it does for Florida. Michigan, according to so many experts, will cruise to either 11-1 or 10-2 absolute worst case, if they beat Florida. Big "if" though, Florida has talent on their defense that can stop Michigan's run game.