The hype heading into Saturday night is about as big as it can get.

Alabama. Florida State. Nick Saban. Jimbo Fisher. Massive new stadium. Cheap concession stand prices. Two teams with national title aspirations.

If that’s not the dream opening weekend matchup, I don’t know what is.

Those aforementioned reasons — with the exception of the cheap food — were why college football analysts like Kirk Herbstreit came out and said that the game almost feels like a national championship. We’re still relatively new to massive neutral site openers, and none have felt bigger than this one.

These teams deserve credit for agreeing to this matchup back in 2014. After all, both will still be alive for a national championship with a loss. That’s the beauty of the College Football Playoff era.

But don’t let that rationale fool you. The odds of seeing an Alabama-Florida State rematch in the national title game are far slimmer than the pundits think.

Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

The odds of Alabama and Florida State meeting again are slim because of what it would take for that to happen. It’s true that the winner of the opener will have the best possible victory on their Playoff résumé before Week 2 even starts. The winner can still lose a game and likely be in solid position to make the field.

For the loser, it’s run the table or go home. After all, the College Football Playoff is a double-elimination selection process. Until a two-loss team makes the field, we should assume that’s the case.

Let’s say Florida State loses. The Seminoles would then have to win 13 straight games. These are the potential land mines that could blow that all up:

  • Sept. 16: vs. No. 18 Miami
  • Oct. 21: vs. Louisville, a team that beat them by 43 last year
  • Nov. 11: at defending national champion Clemson
  • Nov. 25: at No. 17 Florida
  • Dec. 2: ACC Championship
  • Jan. 1: College Football Playoff semifinal vs. top-4 team

So yes, nearly half of the Seminoles’ 13 needed wins would be against teams that are plenty capable of knocking them off. That’s also assuming FSU doesn’t have a clunker like the UNC loss last year. There’s zero room for error. One loss in any of those games and the Alabama rematch is gone.

There’s the other side of the coin. Let’s say that Alabama loses its first season opener in 16 years. The Tide don’t have nearly as many potential land mines as FSU, but it’s still running the table in the SEC, winning the SEC Championship and winning a semifinal game.

In Saban’s decade of dominance, how many times has he won 13 straight games in a season? Twice. Last year was his first time sweeping the SEC since 2009. Alabama rebounds from a loss better than anyone, but only one of those regular season losses came before November (2015). A loss that late wouldn’t allow the Tide much time to move back up the rankings.

A season-opening loss would be unfamiliar territory for Alabama. Shoot, it wouldn’t be any more familiar for Florida State. The Seminoles have never lost an opener under Fisher, either.

RELATED: Alabama has been scary good in season openers under Nick Saban

The loser of this game will essentially revert back to the Bowl Championship Series era for the rest of the season. Going back to when the ACC Championship began, in 2005, no team has made it to the national championship after losing a season opener.

It’d be one thing if a team was playing 11 regular season games and didn’t have to worry about a conference championship. Ten wins and a quality loss would at least keep a team in the conversation back in the day. But 12 regular season games, a conference championship and a semifinal game is simply too much to overcome for an ACC or an SEC squad that loses in Week 1.

Saturday night should have that national championship feel we’ve all been waiting for since the final seconds ticked down on Alabama-Clemson last January.

But don’t waste your breath or 140 characters by declaring “I can’t WAIT to see these teams face off again for the real national championship.”

Enjoy Saturday night, and hope that we get another matchup that good come January.