Georgia And Ohio State Cancel Football Series Scheduled For 2020

Blame this one on the never-ending dynamics of realignment: due to the new Pac-12 / Big 10 agreement to play regular season games against member schools, the agreement between Ohio State and Georgia to play a two-game series starting in 2020 is now off.

"The bottom line, they said they couldn’t play," Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity told the Athens Banner-Herald. "I’m not upset."

That's not to blame the Buckeyes, entirely - as news swirls that the SEC might adopt another conference game, many future non-conference series could be at stake. The Big 10 / Pac-12 agreement would go into place in 2017, creating concern that Ohio State would play Georgia, a Pac-12 team and an entire Big 10 slate in a single season. If Georgia has a nine-game SEC schedule ahead of them, plus an annual series with in-state rival Georgia Tech, they might develop similar concerns.

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Georgia Vs. Ohio State: Dawgs And Buckeyes Working To Schedule A Football Home-And-Home

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Tim Tucker reports the Georgia Bulldogs have established a “memorandum of understanding” to play the Ohio St. Buckeyes in 2020 and 2021. The Dawgs have been shopping for a while for a Midwestern power to play in the future, also speaking with the Michigan Wolverines, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, and Penn St. Nittany Lions.

Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity said very few details are in place other than that the games are planned to occur in 2020 and 2021, that they’ll be arranged as a home-and-home set, and that each will be played in the first two weeks of the season.

The McGarity scheduling philosophy thus appears to be signing a big name season-opener every few years, having also inked the Boise St. Broncos for next year’s Chick Fil A Kickoff Game, but otherwise welcoming a long line of pastries into Sanford Stadium.

Playing the Buckeyes is going to be a big deal — it’ll give Ohio State a brief recruiting inroad into the Southeast, and will position Georgia alongside one of the national media’s favorite programs.

Georgia May Schedule Football Series With Ohio State, Notre Dame, Michigan, Or Penn State

Dawgs 247's Gentry Estes' reported the Georgia Bulldogs are talking to the Ohio St. Buckeyes, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Michigan Wolverines, and Penn St. Nittany Lions about potential future home-and-home football series. Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity confirmed the report to Estes:

We'd love to do a home-and-home with a Big Ten or Midwestern school that has a rich tradition," McGarity said. "We're going to work as hard as we can to make that happen. Hopefully, within the next year, we'll be able to have something in writing.

Georgia's schedule is tied up for the next few years, though they did just do some rearranging in order to land the Boise St. Broncos in next year's Chick Fil A Kickoff Game. UGA's history with those four schools is slim, except for Notre Dame. The Dawgs met the Irish in the 1980 Sugar Bowl, the game that won Georgia its second national championship.

McGarity drew criticism when he first started talking up the virtues of the seven-home-game system he grew fond of at Florida, and recently canceled a future home-and-home with the Oregon Ducks, so scheduling a major road opponent would be a curious decision. Even that Boise game isn't that big of a gamble at all, as it's being played about an hour away from Athens.

Especially a game in Indiana or Michigan, which are not exactly elite recruiting states. Ohio and Pennsylvania, however, produce a lot of talent. But the idea here seems to be positioning Georgia nationally as a classic power a la Ohio State. That's my best guess, at least.

Next year's schedule is more representative of what the Bulldogs fan should come to know and love, but it sounds like big out-of-conference games won't entirely be a thing of the past.