Stadium Mercedes-Benz Stadium Previous stadiums Georgia Dome Payout US$1,900,000 per team | Location Atlanta, Georgia Operated 2008–present | |
The Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game is an annual college football game played on the opening weekend (Labor Day weekend) of the college football season in Atlanta, Georgia. From its inception in 2008 until 2016, the game was held in the Georgia Dome. The Dome's replacement, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, will host the game starting in 2017.
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History
Organizers intend for the game to become a national spotlight game, on par with the Kickoff Classic, held in the Meadowlands from 1983–2002, and the Disneyland Pigskin Classic in the 1990s. In 2008, ESPN's College Gameday broadcast from downtown Atlanta, while ESPN corporate sponsors and local Atlanta-based companies featured prominent displays at Fanzones in Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park.
The first game, known that year as the Chick-fil-A College Kickoff, was played on August 30, 2008, the opening Saturday of the 2008 season. Alabama would defeat Clemson 34–10.
Alabama returned to the Chick-fil-A Kickoff for the 2009 game, defeating Virginia Tech to start the 2009 season which later ended with Alabama being undefeated and winning the 2009 BCS National Championship.
Auburn and UCLA were contacted about playing in the Georgia Dome in 2010, but Auburn backed out of the offer. ABC then attempted to substitute Georgia Tech for the Tigers, but UCLA opted out because the game would essentially be a home game for the Atlanta-based Yellow Jackets, with no return trip to Los Angeles. Finally, an agreement was reached with North Carolina and LSU to face off in the 2010 game. The 2010 game also saw the introduction of a trophy awarded to the winner, the Old Leather Helmet.
The 2011 edition was the first Chick-fil-A Kickoff to feature a team that was not a member of the SEC or ACC, the two conferences that provided teams to play in the Chick-fil-A Bowl at the end of each football season at the same location. Boise State, a team from the Mountain West Conference that had one of the best teams from a "non-BCS AQ" conference in recent years, defeated Georgia 35–21.
The Chick-Fil-A Kickoff consisted of two games in 2012; Tennessee defeated N.C. State 35–21 on Friday night prior to Clemson defeating Auburn 26–19 in the headliner on Saturday. The dual-game idea was first mentioned in the Miami Herald in May 2010, when Gary Stokan, president of the Chick-Fil-A Bowl, told the newspaper that there was the possibility of having the Alabama Crimson Tide face the Miami Hurricanes in a rematch of the 1993 Sugar Bowl.
The 2013 game was a rematch of the 2009 game. Alabama, which had won the last two BCS National Championship games, once again defeated Virginia Tech, this time with a score of 35–10.
2014 would again feature two games. Ole Miss defeated Boise State 35–13 in a Thursday night game. Alabama would defeat West Virginia 33–23 in the headliner in a Saturday afternoon game. It marked the first ever meeting between Alabama and West Virginia in any sport.
The 2015 Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game, which moved to CBS that season, returned to a single game with the ACC's Louisville Cardinals taking on the SEC's Auburn Tigers. Auburn defeated Louisville, 31-24.
The 2016 Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game, which would move back to ESPN, featured the ACC's North Carolina Tar Heels and the SEC's Georgia Bulldogs. The Bulldogs defeated the Tar Heels 33-24, as it was the last kickoff game in the Georgia Dome.
The 2017 Chick-fil-A doubleheader game on ESPN will feature the Florida State Seminoles and the Alabama Crimson Tide on Saturday evening and the Tennessee Volunteers and the hometown Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on Labor Day Night, as the first kickoff games inside the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Downtown, Atlanta.
Payout to each team depends on the amount of revenue gained in excess of the Kickoff's $5.5 million budget. In 2008, Clemson and Alabama were both expected to receive more than $2 million.
Game results
Rankings are from the AP Poll.