Source: Alabama, Florida State finalizing deal for 2017 game

— -- Alabama and Florida State, winners of three of the last four national championships, are finalizing a deal for a neutral-site game in 2017, a source confirmed to ESPN.

Florida State athletic director Stan Wilcox told a group of Seminoles boosters at a board of directors meeting in Charleston, South Carolina, on Friday that the game is set and although a contract has not been signed, an agreement was in place, according to the Palm Beach Post.

The Post reported Friday that the schools will earn a payday between $4 and $5 million from the game.

The Post reported in November that the two schools were negotiating a contract to open the 2017 season at New Atlanta Stadium, the future home of the NFL's Atlanta Falcons. Wilcox told ESPN in March that a contract would likely be finalized in the summer, and a source told ESPN on Friday that, although the deal has not been signed, it's only a matter of time before it is completed.

Many college football fans hoped the Crimson Tide and Seminoles would meet in the postseason the last two years. An improbable last-second loss in the Iron Bowl knocked Alabama out of the national championship picture in 2013, and Florida State would defeat Auburn in the title game. This past season, Alabama and Florida State were playoff participants but did not play each other. Both lost in the College Football Playoff semifinals.

Part of the intrigue of the anticipated 2017 game is the bond Alabama coach Nick Saban and Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher, both West Virginia natives, share. Fisher served as Saban's offensive coordinator at LSU -- the two won a national championship with the Tigers in 2003 -- and the two have remained close since Fisher left for Florida State before the 2007 season.

Fisher was nearly hired as UAB's coach after the 2006 season, but the University of Alabama System board, which oversees campuses in Birmingham, Huntsville and Tuscaloosa, nixed the deal. Fisher went on to Florida State instead to become offensive coordinator and succeed Bobby Bowden.

Alabama and Florida State have been among the most successful programs recently. Alabama has three national titles under Saban, and Fisher is 58-11 as the Seminoles' coach. A January loss in the Rose Bowl snapped the Seminoles' 29-game winning streak.

Both programs have won consistently on the recruiting trail, too, and Florida State in 2011 was the last team to finish atop ESPN RecruitingNation's class ranking before Alabama sealed its fourth consecutive top-ranked class this past February. Florida State is No. 1 in the 2016 RecruitingNation class ranking.