Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl CEO and President Gary Stokan says that putting together neutral-site matchups is a bit like solving a Rubik’s Cube.

The years have to align. The money has to make sense. The fanbases have to be right. The TV contracts have to be right. Everything has to work out perfectly for a neutral-site game to really pack a punch.

If the goal is to pack a punch, the Alabama-Florida State matchup is a Mike Tyson haymaker.

In all likelihood, it’ll be an opening weekend game with two teams ranked in the top three of the Associated Press poll. This year’s Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game in the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium was billed as the best opening weekend game in the 149-year history of college football. Based on the fact that tickets to the showdown were sold out two months ago, that’s certainly not hyperbole.

What some might not realize, though, was that Alabama-FSU was not a matchup concocted by some college football lab designed to create the best matchups possible. It was a process that dates back long before Nick Saban and Alabama were a play away from winning their second consecutive national title.

In fact, the origins of the Alabama-FSU dream matchup pre-date Saban’s time in Tuscaloosa.

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Once upon a time, Saban was desperate.

Eight years before the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game launched, Stokan’s primary responsibilities were simple. His focus was to get the best teams possible into the Peach Bowl (which later became known as the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl).

In Stokan’s second year on the job in 2000, he got a call from Saban. It was the first time that a coach had ever called him with a request.

“(Saban) said, ‘Hey, we need to get into your bowl. It’s the best bowl we can get into,” Stokan said.

Saban’s LSU squad had just seven regular-season victories in his first season in Baton Rouge. Saban wanted to get into a bowl game in a big market that was driving distance for LSU fans, while also playing a quality opponent.

So Stokan went to meet with Saban, then-LSU Chancellor and current NCAA president Mark Emmert and LSU Chairman of the Board Charlie Weems. Stokan was the one who laid down the law. He told Saban that he would have to do two simple things in order for LSU to play in the Peach Bowl.

  1. Sell tickets
  2. Promote the game

That meant Saban had to attend press conferences, banquets and do all of the necessary public relations stuff that would satisfy the Peach Bowl’s corporate sponsors. Saban assured Stokan that it wouldn’t be an issue.

Stokan went back to his office and told the Peach Bowl committee members that they were going with LSU. The committee was hesitant because LSU played in the 1996 Peach Bowl and they didn’t sell tickets or promote the game. Stokan stood by Saban’s program.

“I said, ‘I believe in them and we’re gonna go with them,’” Stokan said. “And they said, ‘Ok, it’s on you.’”

After the Peach Bowl matchup was announced, LSU sold 16,421 tickets, which was a record for the first day. Saban fulfilled all of his PR obligations, and even better for him, LSU beat No. 15 Georgia Tech (the unofficial home team) by two touchdowns. 

Stokan stuck his neck out for Saban, and Saban delivered for Stokan. A trust was built.

In 2008, the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl launched an annual season-opening kickoff game. Naturally, Stokan called up Saban, who had just arrived at Alabama a year earlier and was coming off a seven-win season. Stokan told Saban that he already had Clemson lined up as a likely preseason top-10. Saban liked the sound of that challenge for his team and accepted the matchup.

Alabama then trucked Clemson 34-10 and rattled off a perfect regular season. The Tide didn’t win it all that year, but that set the tone for the decade of dominance that followed.

“Nick will tell you,” Stokan said. “That was the start of the run they’ve been on ever since.”

When Alabama takes on Florida State, it’ll be the program’s fifth time playing in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game. It’s now common for Stokan to get Saban on the phone to talk about coming to Atlanta. Getting Florida State on board, however, took a bit of coaxing.

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When a new coach is hired at a big-time program, it’s not uncommon for Stokan to call them about a potential future Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game matchup. That’s what he did when Jimbo Fisher took over at Florida State in 2010.

Fisher was receptive to the idea of a big opening weekend showdown. Keep in mind that back in the BCS era in 2010, not everyone saw the point of challenging a headliner non-conference game.

Fisher essentially gave Stokan a raincheck. The thinking was that once he got his recruiting squared away and he had a few years under his belt, Fisher would have the pieces in place to schedule a big opening weekend matchup.

Sure enough, it took Fisher just three years to get his ducks in a row. After Florida State won a national title in 2013, Stokan revisited his talks with Fisher and told him that Alabama was already on board for 2017. Fisher told Stokan exactly what he hoped to hear.

“I think we’re ready.”

Haymaker delivered.

At the time, Stokan didn’t know that Alabama would rattle off three straight College Football Playoff berths and that Florida State would average 11 wins per year in that same stretch. But Stokan did have an eye on recruiting rankings, which both Fisher and Saban dominate on a yearly basis.

Stokan gave both of those programs credit for being ahead of the curve when it came to neutral-site openers. In the Playoff era, everyone is eager to line up quality non-conference foes early in the year because a quality loss won’t cost them a shot at a national title anymore.

The number of neutral-site openers will likely continue to grow. Stokan fields calls from teams all over the country now, but the goal is still the same as it’s always been.

“For us, we want to get ACC vs. SEC when we can,” Stokan said. “It’s been successful for us, we’ve got huge alumni bases here, they need four non-conference games so it’s a little easier to schedule them. That was our bread and butter with the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl until we went into the CFP.”

Stokan said that while some teams are willing to go outside of their geographical comfort zone — Washington and Auburn will face off in the kickoff game next year — not everyone is willing to come to Atlanta.

He had Alabama and USC drawn up for 2016. But USC insisted on not playing in Atlanta because it felt Alabama would’ve had a home-field advantage, so they played at AT&T Stadium in Dallas. The same exact thing happened with the Auburn-Oregon matchup that Stokan drew up for Atlanta. Instead, they’ll also play in Dallas in 2019.

But Stokan is looking forward to the dream matchup that did come together. He echoed the sentiment of Alabama-Florida State being the biggest opener in college football history. Two weeks away, Stokan and the rest of the college football world are ready for some opening weekend fireworks.

It’s probably a good thing he accepted Saban’s phone call 17 years ago.