Roundtable discussion: Who would you want to see Florida State play?

An interesting question popped up on Twitter, about all the P5 programs FSU has never played:

To add a little flavor, let’s say FSU would play the program of your choice in a home-and-home series. Let’s even say you had the opportunity to travel to the away game. Here’s where all these programs are located:

Texas: Austin, TX — Which, by the way, is pretty awesome. There’s far more to Austin than just 6th Street, but it still puts “The Strip” in Tallahassee to shame.

Stanford: Palo Alto, CA — On the San Francisco Bay.

Cal: Berkeley, CA — North of Oakland and across the bay from San Francisco.

Arkansas: Fayetteville, AR — Not too far from the Ozark National Forest.

Washington: Seattle, WA — Hopefully free of glittery moody vampires.

Mizzou: Columbia, MO — Sandwiched between St. Louis and Kansas City.

Iowa: Iowa City, Iowa — Strangely, not in Des Moines. That’s probably the most Hawkeye thing anyway.

Utah: Salt Lake City, UT — Does Utah even have another city?

Purdue: West Lafayette, IN — Just northwest of Indianapolis.

Northwestern: Evanston, IL — Just north of Chicago on Lake Michigan, so close they might as well be in Chicago.

Arizona: Tucson, AZ — Mountains and parks and cougars!

Wazzu: Pullman, WA — Speaking of Cougars...next to the border with Montana, so I’m sure the scenery is amazing.

Minnesota: Minneapolis, MN — I’ve heard Minneapolis is a cool city.

Oregon St: Corvallis, OR — Just east of the Pacific, and down the road from Portland.

Vandy: Nashville, TN — Oh really? I’ve heard Nashville is fun.

Illinois: Champaign, IL — Not far from Indianapolis or Chicago.

Rutgers: Piscataway, NJ — No big deal, they just have New York City right in their backyard.

So, if you could pick any program that Florida State has never played and watch your ’Noles go head-to-head via a home-and-home, which would it be? What about your top three?

Some of our contributors give their picks:

Jon Marchant: For me, it would be Texas easy. They’re the most premier program available. While Nashville could be fun, I’m just not excited about playing Vanderbilt. So I’d also choose, strangely enough, Iowa. There’s nothing to do in Iowa, but Hawkeye coach Kirk Ferentz always seems to have a scrappy underdog team and I think it would be fun to crush them. Also, Seattle — not for the rain or bad writing, mind you, but because it has to be so completely different than Florida. Chris Peterson is a good coach and has done a good job with the Huskies. They have talent and would be fun to play. Northwestern would probably get an honorable mention from me.

NoleThruandThru: Tough to narrow down to just three! First on the list has to be Texas. It’s crazy the two schools have never met during a season or even in a bowl game. Seeing the Garnet and Gold line up across from the Burnt Orange would be a blast to watch. Next up would be Washington. Seattle is such a fun city and Washington's stadium and campus are absolutely beautiful. Tailgating on Union Bay? Sign me up. Finally, though I was tempted by Stanford and Utah, I have to go with another SEC matchup in Arkansas. Fayetteville is a great college town and Dickson Street is fantastic. The Ozarks are a great backdrop to some great athletics facilities, and you can’t help but get chills when the fans Call the Hogs (good chills— unlike in Gainesville, where calling the hogs means something much different).

LastNoleofKrypton: First on the list for me is Stanford; the chance to do a home-and-home with a coach with that hated fourth-down math more than Jimbo can’t be passed up plus visiting Stanford would give me a chance to visit some friends that I’ve been meaning to see. Win-win. Next on the list would be Texas; Texas looks like it has it going & it’d kind of be like a new Big 12 track meet; a really fun game. As for visiting Texas I’d love to see if the city of Austin lives up to the hype. Next on the list would be Rutgers for one simple reason: it’s a 30-minute drive from my apartment.

David Visser: Autumn weather in the midwest is made for football season, so give me Northwestern and nearby Chicago. And I guess I have a purple thing going on, because I’d love to check out Seattle, about which I’ve heard great things. Finally, the nicest state I’ve ever visited (as far as its citizens’ collective disposition) is Wisconsin, and it’s been way too long since I’ve been to Minnesota— I’d like to see how it compares to its sister state. One stipulation: it’s a good thing that big non-conference games usually occur early in the season, because I wouldn’t want to head to any of these venues after Halloween. But Austin in November? That’d work.

Frank DNole: Texas. I really don’t like Texas. I got a speeding ticket in Texas on my way to catch some gnarly waves in California with my bud and our gf’s the summer after HS in the late 70’s. The Texas trooper that pulled me over said that since “ya’ll have those surfboards on your roof I know you must have marijuana, so I’m going to tear your car apart until I find it.” All I got charged with was speeding 69/65. We were so happy because we were sure we were going to go to wind up in jail in a small Texas town. We laughed all the way to Huntington. FTFFT.