Welcome to the College Football Capital of the World
By Ned Colegrove
Foxsportssouth.com
May 17, 2010
How long until September 4th?
All due respect to Jason Heyward and the excitement of Turner Field, but sports fans in the city, the region and across the country are giddy for September in Atlanta. When college football stalwart Butch Davis brings his tenacious North Carolina defense into the Georgia Dome to tangle with the Bayou Bengals and arguably the most vociferous fan base in the country- it's on.
You have some time, but buckle up.
The Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game in Atlanta has become the perfect launching pad for the hysteria of college football season. The signature game we now get each fall sets the tone for the year, establishes the "it" team for the season, and reminds us that all is right in the world again. All eyes are on Georgia's capital for Opening Week, and the ever-increasing role of this city within the sport cannot be overstated.
Atlanta truly is becoming the biggest player in the college football landscape.
The Rose Bowl has more history, the Horseshoe can hold more fans and the Cotton Bowl has seen more groundbreaking moments, but no place can match the four-month relevance to the national picture these days like Atlanta.
The Kickoff Game has become a signature contest to get your program in the forefront of recruits' minds, especially the talent-heavy crop in the Southeast. It can catapult you in the national rankings and announce to the world that you're for real. For pageantry, intensity and national importance, the Kickoff Game is now the most glamorous early season battle in the sport.
ESPN's iconic College Gameday show will jam Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park for the third straight year this fall, looking to top last year's mammoth 25,000-person throng.
The Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game is now the perfect primer to the SEC Title tilt at season's end. In fact, win the first, and you could very well be playing in the latter. For the SEC participant, it's all about getting back to the Georgia Dome.
Just examine the importance Atlanta has played to one of its closest SEC neighbors the last two seasons- the Crimson Tide of Alabama. Nick Saban's gang thundered back to prominence thanks in no small part to a season-opening thrashing of 9th-ranked Clemson 34-10 in 2008. They didn't skip a beat the rest of the regular season in going 13-0. Ditto for 2009, when they suffocated Tyrod Taylor and 7th-ranked Virginia Tech all night in yielding 155 total yards in a 34-24 victory. The bar was set for a second-consecutive perfect regular season. Add the two championship battles with Florida and it starts to look like 'Bama should plop Bryant-Denny Stadium right at the junction of I-85 and I-20-- four games in Atlanta against top-10 squads with a 3-1 record leading to two BCS appearances and a national title.
The bowl game played on New Year's Eve in the Georgia Dome isn't too shabby, either. The famed Peach Bowl of yesteryear, now under the Chick-Fil-A brand, too is considered one of the biggest matchups outside the BCS each season. Considering the watered-down state of the college bowl picture these days, the game is a big deal equaling big bucks- it featured the third highest payout of any non-BCS bowl last season, totalling over $6.2 million. Thirteen consecutive sellouts at over 71,000 fans per game also make the bowl one of the best-attended in the business.
Atlanta also of course happens to be home to the reigning ACC Champion Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. So there's some pretty good football played here all season long to fill in between the fireworks in the Dome each September and December just blocks away.
Passion for college football has never been a question in the Southeast or in Atlanta. But now, the number of meaningful games and quality of the on-field product in the capital city have been elevated over the last several years, and the unquenchable thirst that the region has for the sport is closer than ever to being met.
"Atlanta is to college football what Paris is to fashion and New York
is to finance. It sits at the epicenter of the most passionate fan
base for any sport in the country," says SEC Gridiron Live producer Ray
Goodrich of FOX Sports South.
Geography is certainly a big factor, making Atlanta the hub of college football's southern wheel. "The fact it is the largest city in the South makes it a mecca for alumni from all schools, creating a melting pot for college football rivalries and passions," says Goodrich.
To that point, just how is the College Football Hall of Fame getting a shot in the arm after plummeting attendance marks in South Bend, IN? Why, it's being relocated to its new home in downtown Atlanta- a $50 million facility next to Centennial Park.
Touchdown Jesus really is no match for sweet tea.
Perhaps Atlanta's lethargic attitude toward its professional sports teams exists because for 17 weeks a year each fall, its people see what sports are supposed to make them feel. After college football and the excitement around it, just what are these people to make of everything else?
As the premiere pedestal for college football- congrats, Atlanta! And here's to September!