Alabama will open the 2017 season against Florida State at Atlanta’s new Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

The Sept. 2 game will be the first regular-season college football game at the soon-to-be home of the Atlanta Falcons, who are playing their final season in the Georgia Dome now.

The college game marks the fifth consecutive year Alabama has opened the season with a neutral-site game and the fifth time in the Nick Saban-coached era that the Tide has opened the season in Atlanta.

The 2017 SEC Championship Game is Saturday, Dec. 2, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

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South Carolina State University head football coach Chennis Berry joined the team in 2023 after coaching at Benedict College, a historically Black college in Columbia, South Carolina. Last year, Berry's team saw its season end in heartbreak in the Celebration Bowl and this time, it ended in triumph with a 40-38 win. (Courtesy of South Carolina State Athletics)

Credit: South Carolina State University Athletics

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Students line up after school for school buses at Sequoyah Middle School in Doraville on Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. The school’s principal told teachers not to talk to students about ICE, and teachers and activists are pushing back. (Arvin Temkar/AJC)

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