The college football season opens in 26 days with Georgia Tech vs. Florida State, and the Aer Lingus College Football Classic announced today that the game is officially sold out.

This will be a huge matchup to start the season. Florida State is the reigning ACC champion and the favorite to win the league again. Georgia Tech may be the underdog, trailing by 12 points, but they have the firepower to keep the game close and possibly pull off an upset. This is the start of a challenging schedule for the Yellow Jackets, but a win in this game could put them off to a huge start.

I’ve been saying for a few months that Georgia Tech has a much better chance of winning this game than most people would like to admit, and on an episode of Late Kick with Josh Pate, he talked about the possibility of the Yellow Jackets pulling off an upset win over the Seminoles:

“So this is one of those week zero games. I’m not a huge fan of week zero as a concept, but it happens. Georgia Tech versus FSU, how bold is that to you? To me, it’s just an 8.25. The line on this game is FSU -12.5, FSU has a new quarterback, they’re only 90th or so in return production. Georgia Tech, on the other hand, is coming off one of their best years in a long time, they’re top 10 in offensive return production, Haynes King is still the quarterback there, so Georgia Tech has an advantage in terms of quarterback experience. You felt something about them last year and they had some close losses as well, some of their losses were close, so this could be a program that’s closer than people give them credit for. Good running game, it’s the right time to play FSU while they’re still peeling the sticker off a lot of the new pieces they got. I’m not ready to pick the game yet, but that’s for me just an 8.25 on the audacity scale. That’s not entirely wrong. Out of the realm of possibility for me. Last year we beat Duke in week one against Clemson, so that was a turnover fest, but they count, so anything can happen.”

ESPN college football commentator and former Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy discussed the Week 0 game between the Yellow Jackets and Seminoles on a recent episode of the Always College Football Podcast, calling the game a playoff decider and calling the Yellow Jackets a dangerous team:

“Florida State versus Georgia Tech is a playoff game. There’s no doubt about that. I mean, Florida State – Georgia Tech, Georgia Tech is dangerous. As I said, Georgia Tech is one of those teams that can beat anybody. Florida State has legitimate playoff expectations, and that’s right.”

“This game has massive playoff implications,” McElroy said. “People wouldn’t necessarily phrase it that way because Florida State is probably the clear favorite going in, but this game potentially has significance as we fast forward to the end of the year and evaluate the playoff situation.”