Chick-fil-A Kickoff lands first Pac-12 team

2009: No. 5 Alabama d. No. 7 Virginia Tech 34-24

2010: No. 21 LSU d. No. 18 North Carolina 30-24

2011: No. 5 Boise State d. No. 19 Georgia 35-21

2012: No. 14 Clemson d. Auburn 26-19

2012: Tennessee d. N.C. State 35-21

2013: No. 1 Alabama d. Virginia Tech 35-10

2014: No. 2 Alabama d. West Virginia 33-23

2014: No. 18 Ole Miss d. Boise State 35-13

2015: No. 6 Auburn d. Louisville 31-24

2016: No. 18 Georgia d. No. 22 North Carolina 33-24

2017: Alabama vs. Florida State

2017: Georgia Tech vs. Tennessee

2018: Washington vs. Auburn

Note: Team rankings are from each year's Associated Press preseason poll. Two Chick-fil-A Kickoff games were played in 2012 and 2014, and two are scheduled for 2017, when the event moves from the Georgia Dome to the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Atlanta’s season-opening Chick-fil-A Kickoff game, usually a matchup of SEC vs. ACC teams, expanded its geographic reach with Thursday’s announcement that a Pac-12 team will play in the event for the first time.

The Washington Huskies will travel across the country to face Auburn in Mercedes-Benz Stadium at the start of the 2018 season, marking the first time a Pac-12 team has played in the annual event, which began in 2008.

Of the 11 Chick-fil-A Kickoff games played so far, including two in 2012 and 2014, all have involved SEC teams and eight have involved ACC teams. The only other conferences represented have been the Big 12 once (West Virginia) and the Mountain West twice (Boise State both times).

SEC and ACC teams will remain the event’s cornerstone, with at least one team from those nearby leagues needed in each game for attendance and financial reasons. Next year, there will be two Chick-fil-A Kickoff games, both matching ACC vs. SEC teams. But bringing in a distant team such as Washington to play a nearby team such as Auburn is a formula that game officials feel will work on occasion.

“Now that we are building relationships through the College Football Playoff outside of those two leagues, we’re just looking for the best game that we can match together,” said Peach Bowl Inc. president and CEO Gary Stokan, whose organization runs the season-opening event as well as the postseason bowl.

“We have had other conversations with Pac-12 teams as well for the future. Because of the payouts you have to hit, I think you’ll always have to have either an SEC or ACC team on one side, so we’ll continue that theme. But on the other side of it, we want to look for a ranked team that will give us the best matchup.”

Stokan said he also has had discussions with Big Ten and Big 12 schools about opposing an SEC or ACC team in games beyond 2018.

The Auburn-Washington game is set for Sept. 1, 2018, and will be nationally televised on ESPN. The schools have never met in football. Both programs are in the top 10 of this week’s College Football Playoff rankings.

Auburn has played in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff twice previously, most recently in 2015.

“Since our goal every year is to get to Atlanta and compete for a (SEC) championship, I also like the opportunity for our team to play there early in the season,” Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs said in a statement. “That’s an advantage for us.”

To land Washington, Stokan began by approaching Huskies coach Chris Petersen, who was Boise State’s coach when the Broncos defeated Georgia in the 2011 Kickoff event.

“That was great exposure for Boise State, and Chris had a good time,” Stokan said. “I reached out to him at Pac-12 media days in Los Angeles in July and said, ‘Chris, we’d love to have a Pac-12 team come play in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff game.’ Really, out of that conversation, we started a dialogue.”

“The trip will provide an exciting opportunity for our student-athletes to compete on a national stage inside a first-class venue,” Washington athletic director Jennifer Cohen said in a statement Thursday, “and should be a fun trip for a great number of Husky faithful.”