Peach Bowl CEO: Inviting Alabama for first time ‘pretty special’
TUSCALOOSA — Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl CEO Gary Stokan said Christmas came earlier this year, as he found out No. 1 Alabama would be participating in his bowl game for the first time in its 49-year history.
Not only that, the Crimson Tide would be joined by No. 4 Washington in what will be the most significant college football game to ever be played in the city of Atlanta.
“We were sitting at a Dave and Buster’s, and we found out Alabama was No. 1 and we were going to have Alabama in our bowl game,” Stokan said Monday while in Tuscaloosa, presenting Alabama with its invitation to the bowl. “We’ve never even had Alabama in our bowl game in 49 years, and then to get them when they are ranked No. 1 and get them in a national semifinal game, I mean that’s pretty special.”
Stokan presented Alabama athletic director Bill Battle and head coach Nick Saban a formal invitation to the Peach Bowl in the Mal Moore Complex on Monday. The smiling duo gladly accepted.
Alabama will play Washington on Dec. 31 at 2 p.m. inside the Georgia Dome in Atlanta in a College Football Playoff semifinal game.
“It's certainly an honor and a privilege for my team here at the University of Alabama to have the opportunity to be in the College Football Playoff, especially in a first-class venue going back to Atlanta being part of the Peach Bowl,” Saban said. “Atlanta’s a great host city. We've certainly enjoyed the opportunity to go four times to the Kickoff Classic. Gary and his staff and the Peach Bowl folks do a marvelous job in terms of hosting, and we've had a great experience there in the past, and we're looking forward to having a wonderful experience in the future.”
While Alabama has yet to make an appearance in the Peach Bowl, Atlanta has become somewhat of a home away from home for the Tide. Alabama beat Clemson 34-10 in the inaugural Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game in 2008 and has opened its season with the game three other times, including a 34-24 win over Virginia Tech in 2009, a 35-10 win over Virginia Tech in 2013 and a 33-23 victory over West Virginia in 2014.
The Tide also has played in six SEC Championship Games under Saban, winning in its last five appearances in the game, including three straight SEC titles. Since 2008, Alabama has played nine games inside the Georgia Dome, winning in its last eight times.
During the invitation news conference, Stokan joked with Battle and Saban that Alabama would have to start paying Georgia income tax pretty soon. Battle shot back later that instead, the Tide should get a little compensation for filling up the Georgia Dome so often.
Battle has a point. Since Alabama’s first appearance in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game in 2008, Tide fans have flooded the Georgia Dome, gladly making the 200-mile trip from Tuscaloosa to Atlanta to cheer on their team. For the Peach Bowl, Alabama sold out its allotment of 13,000 tickets on the first day.
Building to the bowl
Stokan still remembers his first experience with Alabama fans in 2008. Before each game, Stokan said he likes to walk around the field and say a prayer for both the players and the fans. During the 2008 Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game, he received quite the surprise.
“It was an hour before the game, and the Alabama side was full,” Stokan said. “They were ready to go. So, I feel like one of the most passionate fan bases in the country is Alabama.”
Of course, that game also served as a turning point in the Tide’s return to prominence as well. After upsetting Clemson in its opener in 2008, the Tide went on to a perfect regular season before losing to Florida in the SEC Championship Game. Alabama would win its first national championship under Saban the following year.
"We were a relatively unknown program when we played Clemson,” Saban said of the game in 2008. “... We had a pretty dominant performance in that game, and I actually think that game probably did as much to launch this program forward as any game or anything that we ever did. We took a little bit of a risk in playing in a game like that against a very, very good team and a good program that was highly ranked. We were happy to have the opportunity to do it.”
The Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game is the nation’s longest-running kickoff game and typically hosts two of the nation’s top teams to start the season. The success of the inaugural game in 2008 helped set the stage for other kickoff games across the nation, including the Cowboys Classic in Arlington, Texas, where Alabama played Southern California for its opener this season.
Stokan said the idea for the kickoff game came after a failed attempt to land a national championship in Atlanta in 2006. When the Bowl Championship Series decided that the national championship would rotate from the Rose Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl in a dual-host format, it eliminated any chance Atlanta had of hosting a BCS bowl. However, Stokan came up with a different solution.
“I said to my board, ‘Well, if they’re not going to let usin the BCS in the back side of the season, let’s start a BCS game on the front side,” Stokan said. “At the same time, the NCAA had legislated a 12th game, so I said, let’s take that and make it a bowl-type atmosphere.”
Hence, the Chick-fil-A Kickoff was born.
The success of the kickoff game, along with college football switching to a playoff format, has helped elevate the Peach Bowl to elite-game status. Next year, Atlanta will host the national championship while moving into the new state-of-the-art Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Alabama will become the first football team to play a regular-season game inside the stadium when it opens up its season next year against Florida State in the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Game.
“I think the Georgia Dome is the best indoor facility in the world,” Stokan said. “I hate to lose it, but (Falcons owner Arthur Blank) does things the right way, and for him to move into the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium, put $1.2 billion of his own money into it... it’s going to be a phenomenal experience.”
This story was originally published December 13, 2016 at 3:17 PM with the headline "Peach Bowl CEO: Inviting Alabama for first time ‘pretty special’."