As it begins its defense of its 2013 BCS title, Florida State will open the 2014 season in Dallas. If the football program has its way, there’ll be additional neutral-location games in its future.
School officials confirmed to ESPN.com‘s ACC blog that they have engaged in what’s described as preliminary discussions to play future games in Orlando (2016) and Atlanta (2018). The Seminoles’ opponents for those games were not revealed.
Presumably, the proposed 2018 game in Atlanta would be a part of the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game. Teams from the ACC have played in that game/weekend six times since 2008 -- Clemson (2008, 2012), Virginia Tech (2009, 2013), North Carolina (2010) and North Carolina State (2012) -- with new member Louisville slated to play Auburn in 2015.
“From [Florida State’s] perspective, we’re at the point now that we would like to continue to be able to have as many quality home games as we can, potentially take one of those games on the road,” FSU athletic director Stan Wilcox told the website.
While the games, if/when they are agreed upon, would technically serve as neutral-site contests, they would essentially serve as quasi home games for the Seminoles, albeit with a very large guarantees if the big-dollar trend continues. Orlando is less than a four-hour drive from Tallahassee, while Atlanta is less than five hours away from the campus.
With the ACC looking at a nine-game league slate while at the same time exploring the possibility of an “8+1" deal with the SEC, Wilcox acknowledged that “some of [the school’s future scheduling plans] can be jeopardized depending how the conference ends up.”