Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl president Gary Stokan has an ambitious plan for the start of the 2017 season when the new Falcons stadium is scheduled to open, one that potentially involves Georgia Tech.
Stokan is considering playing three games at the new stadium on the season’s opening weekend, Thursday, Saturday and Monday. He is interested in having the Yellow Jackets play in either the Thursday or Monday games. Tech officials have indicated their interest in playing in the kickoff game at some point, possibly 2017.
“We do want to get Georgia Tech to come play in the kickoff game,” Stokan said.
There have been as many as two Chick-fil-A Kickoff games played at the Georgia Dome – there will be two this season – but never three. If Tech were to play in the Thursday game, it likely would be the first-ever regular-season football game in the new stadium.
Stokan said he wants to find an SEC opponent for Tech in the game and has spoken with conference athletic directors about interest and availability. With the College Football Playoff selection committee to begin assigning teams to the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl (and other bowls in the playoff rotation) this season, Stokan is trying to create ACC-SEC matchups in the kickoff game, following on the popularity of the pairing when the bowl game was contracted with the two conferences.
Tech is scheduled to play Ole Miss in 2017 at Bobby Dodd Stadium, but Stokan said his group would not move that game to the kickoff game. That would likely mean Tech and Ole Miss would likely have to re-schedule or cancel the game, as Tech would be opposed to playing three SEC teams in one season – Ole Miss, Georgia and the kickoff-game opponent.
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