No. 3 Florida State faces No. 1 Alabama on Saturday (8 ET on ABC and the ESPN app) in a historic matchup for a season opener.

Here are the key “Notes to know” about this game.

Stakes high for season opener

This game is big by any measure, but especially to open the season. This marks the first time since the debut of the preseason Associated Press poll in 1950 that the No. 1 team will face off with a top-3 opponent in its season opener.

Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher worked under current Alabama coach Nick Saban as LSU’s offensive coordinator from 2000 to 2004 and now gets a shot against his former boss. The bad news for Fisher and the Seminoles? Saban is 10-0 all-time against his former assistant coaches, with each win coming by at least 14 points.

Something will have to give Saturday as both Saban (10-0) and Fisher (7-0) are unbeaten in season openers at their respective schools. A loss could be decisive: No team has won a national title after losing its season opener since Miami in 1983.

Florida State has never beaten the AP No. 1 team away from Doak Campbell Stadium, going 0-5 against the AP’s top team in road or neutral-site games. The Seminoles’ only win, regardless of site, against an AP No. 1 opponent came at home in their 1996 regular-season finale against Florida.

This game pits two of the four active FBS head coaches who have won a national championship.

These teams are meeting for the first time since 2007, when Florida State beat Alabama in Jacksonville, Florida, in Saban’s first season with the Crimson Tide. Since Saban took over in Tuscaloosa, no team has multiple wins against the Tide without a loss.

Alabama has won 36 regular-season non-conference games in succession, easily the longest active streak in the FBS. Florida State has the fourth-longest active streak, with 16 such wins.

Florida State notes

Florida State is facing the No. 1 team in the AP poll for the first time since 2011, when it lost at home to Oklahoma.

The Seminoles are opening their season with a neutral-site game for the third time in the last four seasons. They defeated Oklahoma State in Arlington, Texas, in 2014 and beat Ole Miss in Orlando, Florida, on Labor Day last season. Before this current run, Florida State hadn’t played a neutral-site season opener since it beat Iowa State in Kansas City, Missouri, in 2002.

Last year marked Florida State’s fifth straight 10-win season, tied with Ohio State for the third-longest active streak in the FBS. Fisher and Florida State reached a BCS/New Year’s 6 bowl in all five of those seasons, including their national championship season of 2013.

LSU was 48-16 in five years with Fisher as offensive coordinator under Saban (2000 to 2004). The Tigers ranked no worse than tied for second in the SEC in points per game, total yards per game and yards per play over that span.

Alabama notes

Alabama is among five schools to win its season opener in each of the last 10 years (including games later vacated due to sanctions). Five of the Crimson Tide’s 10 season openers over that span were against teams in the AP Poll.

Saban is 8-3 all-time in AP top-3 matchups, the most such wins by a head coach in AP poll history. This will be the 12th top-3 matchup of Saban’s career, tying him with Bobby Bowden (who was 6-6) for the most all-time.

Alabama has won nine neutral-site games in Atlanta in succession. The Crimson Tide could play as many as three games in Atlanta this season as the SEC championship and the CFP championship game are also scheduled at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.