The Jacksonville Sports Council will announce a significant sporting event next week, expected to be a college football game at EverBank Field.

Immediate speculation led to two possibilities: the game between Notre Dame and Navy in 2016, possibly the week after the Florida-Georgia game; and a kickoff game between Florida State and West Virginia as early as 2018.

Jax Sports president and CEO Rick Catlett said he would not confirm or deny any rumors or reports.

The Notre Dame-Navy game has been discussed for years. The attraction is obvious: Jacksonville’s military community of active-duty, reservists and retirees interested to see the Midshipmen play, and the lure of Notre Dame, which brings national attention wherever it plays.

Notre Dame played in the Taxslayer Bowl in 1999 and 2003. The game sold out both times.

Meanwhile, earlier this week, the Clarksburg (W. Va.) Daily Mail reported that Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher is making overtures to West Virginia to play in a regular season or kickoff game. Clarksburg is Fisher’s hometown and located 40 miles from the West Virginia campus in Morgantown.

FSU was to have played West Virginia in a home-and-home series in 2012 and 2013, but the Mountaineers canceled the games when they joined the Big 12.

Jacksonville has had huge success in bringing FSU and West Virginia to town for the Taxslayer Bowl. The largest attendance in game history was in 2010 for Bobby Bowden’s final game as the Seminoles coach. FSU beat West Virginia, which Bowden coached before coming to Tallahassee.

Jacksonville Sports officials also have been trying to get into the kickoff classic rotation. Games over Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, Dallas and Houston, and upcoming games in Orlando and Charlotte have featured strong inter-sectional matchups with Alabama, LSU and TCU as the most frequent participants.

FSU played Oklahoma State in Dallas last year, winning 37-31. The Seminoles will play Mississippi in Orlando to open the 2016 season and then take on Alabama in Atlanta to start the 2017 season.

 

jacksonville.com

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