Behind the scenes: How Atlanta landed FSU-Alabama
Editor's Note: This is the first in a two-part series.
After months of speculation, the announcement that Florida State and Alabama would square off in Atlanta to start the 2017 football season officially came down on July 9. The headline on the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game's official website read, "Clash of the Titans."
It is a clash more than five years in the making. One that will feature two of the most dominant programs in college football, with each receiving whopping $5 million payouts for the game.
While talks between the two schools and Peach Bowl Inc., President/CEO Gary Stokan got serious in 2014 and really heated up earlier this year, the groundwork for the mega-matchup actually was laid in early 2010 when Jimbo Fisher was named head coach at Florida State. And truth be told, the seeds actually might have been planted a decade earlier.
Through interviews with Stokan, Fisher and senior officials at FSU, Warchant.com takes a deeper look at the origins of this game, what events transpired and relationships evolved to make it possible, and why it likely signals a shift in Florida State's approach to scheduling for future years.
First contact
Gary Stokan made his initial call to Tallahassee in early 2010.
"When Jimbo got to Florida State [as head coach], I said, 'You know, we'd love to have you play in our Chick-fil-A Kickoff game," Stokan recalled in an interview last week.
At the time, that might have sounded like an odd proposition. FSU was coming off a 7-6 season -- its third 7-6 finish in four years -- and was about to be led by a first-time head coach. Stokan's kickoff game, meanwhile, was in its infancy but had started off with a bang; its first two games featured three top-10 teams and a top-25 Alabama.
Nevertheless, Stokan was immediately interested in the Seminoles. He understood the resources available in Tallahassee and the experience Fisher had gained while working for mentors Nick Saban and Bobby Bowden. He had a feeling FSU soon would enjoy a resurgence.
Stokan's dream scenario, from the beginning, was a pairing of Florida State and Alabama. Even though the Seminoles had fallen on tough times, they still commanded great ratings on television and had a fan base that traveled well. And the teacher-pupil angle between Saban and Fisher would provide a hook to capture the imagination of fans who had no rooting interest in either team.
"In a situation like that with one coach who worked for the other, you never know if they'll want to play each other," Stokan said. "Sometimes they like to, sometimes they don't."
From the beginning, that was never an issue. Neither Saban nor Fisher had a problem with squaring off as opponents. But Stokan would have to clear a number of other hurdles before getting the schools to sign off on a deal.
The first was timing.
Even though Fisher had arrived in Tallahassee three years earlier as offensive coordinator, there was major work to be done in recruiting. Fisher told Stokan he appreciated the interest and loved playing in Atlanta -- he was part of Saban's LSU staff in 2000, which went to the Peach Bowl and stunned No. 15 Georgia Tech -- but his program wasn't ready to sign up for any high-profile showdowns beyond those already scheduled.
Aside from its annual rivalry with Florida, FSU already had non-conference games lined up against Oklahoma (2010 and '11) and BYU ('11) in the next two years and they would travel to USF in 2012.
Fisher didn't say the game would never happen; just not now. So Stokan, whose background is in sales and marketing, kept the lines of communication open.
"When you look at a Florida State or an Alabama, you take them any year you can get 'em," Stokan said. "They're such great college football brands. They have such a great fan base that follows them. They're such great programs. They're great brands for TV. So you never give up on a Florida State or an Alabama."
'Right year, right opponent'
Everything changed in 2012. It was Fisher's breakthrough season as a head coach -- the Seminoles went 12-2, won their first ACC championship since 2005 and their first BCS bowl championship since 2000 -- and Florida State officials let Stokan know they were ready to be considered for a future game.
"When we first started looking at neutral-site games about three years ago, our first thoughts were Atlanta and Orlando," said FSU senior associate athletics director Monk Bonasorte, who handles the bulk of the Seminoles' football scheduling. "Jimbo and I talked to Gary at that time and told him we were interested -- not necessarily to play Alabama, but to play a game there. And really, Gary and I would talk every year. But the big thing was it had to be the right year and the right opponent."
By the "right opponent," the Seminoles made it clear that they wanted to play a marquee foe -- a national power who would fortify their strength of schedule and also help generate a large payday. And the "right year" meant an even-numbered year because the Seminoles already would be locked into road games against rival Florida in odd-numbered years.
With that criteria in mind, Stokan spent the next two years playing matchmaker, talking with various schools who fit those requirements to see if they had interest in facing the Seminoles. Then each time one would say yes, Stokan would call Bonasorte and Fisher to see if the feeling was mutual.
For the better part of two years, nothing worked.
It wasn't until 2014, just after Fisher led the Seminoles to their third national championship and four years after Stokan first started trying to court FSU to Atlanta, that something finally clicked. The potential matchup wouldn't be for the right year, but it most definitely was the right caliber of opponent.
Stokan gave Fisher another call.
"We've got this opportunity with Alabama in 2017," he said.
In Stokan's mind, it was far from a sure thing. As much as he desired a clash between Florida State and Alabama (and Saban and Fisher), he knew this would require the Seminoles to take the game in a year that they already were hitting the road to face UF. And if FSU turned him down again, there was no telling when he'd be able to get the 'Noles and Tide together ... if ever.
The response from Fisher came without hesitation.
"We'd love to play," he said.
Said Bonasorte: "We preferred even years. But when he got Alabama for '17, that worked for us."
Devil's in the details
Getting commitments from FSU and Alabama to come to Atlanta in the same year was the hard part. But for the game to become a reality, both schools would have to consent to a number of financial considerations.
When determining the size of payouts for these types of games, all parties have to agree on how many tickets each school will receive, whether one school will receive a larger allotment of tickets (and thus make more money), how much the tickets will sell for, and what other incentives will be provided to the teams.
Bonasorte, who handled the negotiations with Alabama senior associate athletics director Finus Gaston, said the Crimson Tide couldn't have been easier to work with. After agreeing that each school would receive 30,000 tickets and take home $5 million for the game (along with 100 free hotel rooms per school to minimize travel expenses), Bonasorte and Gaston met once again in April to compare notes. They then quickly agreed to start drawing up the contracts.
More than five years after Stokan's first call to Fisher, the game became official in early July: FSU and Alabama will square off on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2017. It will be the first game played in the $1.4 billion New Atlanta Stadium. And there's a legitimate chance it could be bigger than Stokan ever imagined.
"It's two years away, but with the way both programs are recruiting, it's going to be a possible top-five matchup," Bonasorte said. "When you look at where we've been the last couple of years and the way Alabama has been since Nick's been there, and where the talent for both teams looks to be by then, you might have a possible top-two or top-three matchup."
"These teams represent the best in our sport," Stokan said when the game was announced. "The best players, the best coaches, the best fans. It's going to be a memorable start to the season and there is no better place to host this than in Atlanta, the capital of college football."
Coming Friday: Why Florida State and other top programs might start playing neutral-site games every season, and how Atlanta's desire to become the 'college football capital of the world' helped spark that transformation in scheduling.