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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.

Photographs by coka_koehler used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.