6 reasons Alabama-Florida State is the biggest college football opener ever

Alabama and Florida State will play Saturday night in Atlanta (8 p.m. ET, ABC). It’s a massive deal. Use this list to persuade your local bar to put it on instead of, I dunno, Liberty-Baylor.

1. Just look at Bama’s and FSU’s rankings. There’s never been a game like it.

Alabama is the preseason No. 1 in the AP Poll. Florida State is No. 3. There have been many 1-2 and 1-3 games at the ends of seasons and in title games, but this game’s status as a season opener between Goliaths makes it unique.

Every other time No. 1 has played a top-five opponent in Week 1 since the preseason poll began in 1950:

• 1983: Nebraska vs. No. 4 Penn State in New Jersey
• 1986: Oklahoma vs. No. 4 UCLA
• 1985: Pitt vs. No. 5 North Carolina

2. It’s the worthy christening of a new mega-stadium.

Hello, Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

Let us take you on a tour of the building that’s hosting this game, the Playoff National Championship, the Peach Bowl, and the SEC Championship Game all in one year. It seats about 70,000, has every amenity you could think of, and has a video board that makes the place look like a spaceship from the inside.

Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

It also looks like spacecraft from the outside, if you were wondering.

Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

This is the Falcons’ stadium, but it’s going to be an excellent college venue. That’s especially true when two huge Southeastern fanbases converge on it.

"In our mind, we wanted the tenants that were going to come in here and play to feel like this was their home field, this was their stadium, and that's how we designed it," Falcons CEO and president Rich McKay told SB Nation. "We added two extra auxiliary locker rooms, which were gigantic in nature, really for the SEC Championship. They are both 100-locker locker rooms. We did it because we felt it was a good way to host major events; that way they didn't end up in some temporary, visiting locker room.”

The game has long been a sellout, TV ratings will be huge, College GameDay will be there, and the teams are getting $5 million payouts. It’ll be the center of the American sporting scene in a way that’s rare for September college football.

3. It’s the best coach matchup on the 2017 schedule.

FSU’s Jimbo Fisher used to work for Bama’s Nick Saban, when the latter was the head coach at LSU from 2000 to 2004. Fisher was his offensive coordinator, and the two collaborated to win the 2003 season’s national title.

They’ve never faced each other as head coaches, though Fisher was the coordinator on the 2007 FSU team that beat Saban’s Tide by a touchdown. If Fisher can beat him now, it’ll be a feat. Former Saban assistants are 0-10 all-time against him as head coaches, losing by an average of 40-10.

Saban’s the best coach in the country, but Fisher’s in the top four. Where he rates depends on how you view Ohio State’s Urban Meyer and Clemson’s Dabo Swinney.

4. There’s so much talent in this game.

Alabama has signed the top recruiting class in the country seven straight years. The Tide’s roster is unmatched, but the Noles are one of the few in the same neighborhood.

FSU’s last five classes have ranked sixth, third, third, fourth, and 11th nationally. There are 10 teams in the country that reach the Blue-Chip Ratio threshold to contend for the title this year; two of the top four are in this game. They’re Nos. 1 and 4 on the 247Sports Team Talent Composite, which measures roster depth by recruiting rankings.

The two young quarterbacks, Bama’s Jalen Hurts and FSU’s Deondre Francois, have different styles. Hurts’ game is built around the option run, and Francois is more of a drop-back thrower. Both were impressive as freshmen.

The game will feature the two best defensive backs in the country, FSU’s Derwin James and Bama’s Minkah Fitzpatrick. Both are technically safeties, but they’ll line up as linebackers and nickelbacks. One of them’s going to make a game-changing play. The clash between run-stopping safety James and Alabama’s approximately nine-headed rushing attack could be one for the ages.

In an early mock draft for 2018, SB Nation’s Dan Kadar has James and Fitzpatrick = in the top five. He has five Bama players and three Seminoles coming off the board in the first round. Of the eight combined first-round projections in this game, seven play on defense. Bama receiver Calvin Ridley is the exception.

5. It’s the ACC against the SEC.

Conventional wisdom held for years that the SEC was college football’s best conference. But last year, the ACC basically tied it, and Clemson’s win against Bama in the national title game meant that tie went to the ACC.

Do you like arguing about conference supremacy? You’re in luck.

ACC coaches spent the offseason telling anyone who’d listen that their conference is now the best.

The ACC has two top teams, and the SEC only has one. If Bama wins on Saturday, it’ll be 2-1 in its three recent meetings with FSU and Clemson.

An Alabama loss will mean getting swept in back-to-back games at the hands of the two best teams in the conference that now says it’s better than the SEC.

6. This meeting will set the pace for the whole season.

Whichever team wins will be No. 1 in the polls on Sunday. A marquee win of this caliber will afford someone breathing room, too. Whoever wins can afford to lose and still have Playoff dreams totally intact.

Whoever loses will be backed up to a wall after the first game. There might not be a game all year that does more to shape the national race.