ESPN’s FPI predicts the outcome of Alabama at Florida State
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ESPN’s FPI believes that No. 8 Alabama has a great chance to start Year 2 of the Kalen DeBoer era with a big road victory.
The network’s Football Power Index is giving the Crimson Tide a 90.6% chance to go into Florida State and take down the Seminoles in the national TV showdown on Saturday at Doak Campbell Stadium. Usually when a program like Alabama begins the season with a true road game against a tradition-rich Power 4 Conference team, it means that things could get dicey for that road team.
And obviously things could get dicey, because Florida State will be looking to kick-start its season with a big bang against the mighty Crimson Tide. FSU is coming off disastrous 2-10 season, and head coach Mike Norvell is feeling the heat in Tallahassee as the 2025 season begins. What better way for Norvell’s program to start reviving itself than with a titanic Week 1 upset of Alabama, which did struggle on the road in DeBoer’s first season.
Alabama’s 3 regular-season losses last fall all came on the road, including a stunning early October loss to Vanderbilt that put a serious dent in the Crimson Tide’s solid September. Now, DeBoer’s team, with a new starting quarterback at the helm in Ty Simpson and the usual array of talented weapons surrounding him led by Ryan Williams, will attempt to start remedying those road woes from last year in the very first game of this year.
ESPN thinks Alabama will do just that in the matchup that’s tucked into the prominent 3:30 p.m. ET time slot on ABC. It’ll be a showdown between the SEC and ACC, and though it comprises 2 named programs, ESPN believes only 1 of those programs will be up to the task on Saturday afternoon.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
