It may not have been billed this way, but the game of Week 1 in 2025 was Florida State’s 31-17 upset win over No. 8 Alabama at Doak Walker Stadium in Tallahassee. After Thomas Castellanos called out the Crimson Tide that offseason and backed it up on the field, there is legitimate animosity for this year’s rematch at Bryant-Denny Stadium on September 19, in Week 3 of the 2026 season. However, that didn’t earn the game primetime billing.Â
On Wednesday, ESPN and the ACC released kickoff times for much of the early season slate, so between its first three games of the season and its three Friday night games, Florida State now knows when six of the 12 kickoffs will be held.Â
That includes a 7:00 p.m. kickoff against New Mexico in Week 0, a 7:30 p.m. kickoff against SMU in Week 1, a 7:00 p.m. start in Week 6 vs. Louisville, a 7:00 p.m. start in Week 11 vs. Pitt, a 3:30 p.m. start vs. Florida in Week 13, and perhaps most notably a 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff in Tuscaloosa in Week 3.Â
FSU didn’t hold up its end of the bargain after last year’s Alabama upset
College football has some strong matchups in Week 3 with conference play starting to get underway, including Lane Kiffin’s return to Ole Miss as the head coach of LSU, which is the primetime game on ESPN. It’s hard to argue that FSU and Alabama should be the primetime game on ABC over the Magnolia Bowl, because if not the game of the year, it’s likely going to be the biggest soap opera of the season.Â
Even if Florida State was a College Football Playoff team last season after beating Alabama, maybe this game still couldn’t have gotten the primetime slot over LSU-Ole Miss. Still, the fact that it’s not even a conversation is yet another bad sign for the FSU football program.Â
The Seminoles remain one of the biggest brands in college football, and even without Nick Saban, Alabama will always draw eyeballs. Yet, this matchup doesn’t have primetime juice even in weeks without the Magnolia Bowl as competition. That has a bit to do with the first few years of Kalen DeBoer’s tenure not exactly living up to the lofty expectations in Tuscaloosa. Still, much more than that, it’s a reflection of FSU’s 7-18 record since getting left out of the 2023 CFP for Alabama.Â
Memories are short in modern sports. The college football news cycle moves as fast as any. Yet for this game to have so little juice after all the recent history between the programs is, honestly, unacceptable.Â
Maybe another early-season upset for FSU will jumpstart a turnaround season for Norvell, or, more likely, a frustrating loss will bring him one step closer to the seemingly inevitable chopping block that a massive buyout can’t save him from forever.
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