Georgia added yet another marquee home-and-home series Thursday, announcing that the Bulldogs and Ohio State have agreed to play.
It’s been an aggressive scheduling campaign for the Bulldogs, who this year have announced home-and-home series with the likes of Florida State, Oklahoma, Clemson and Texas, to go along with a series agreed to earlier with UCLA.
The Bulldogs will host Ohio State in 2030 before traveling to Columbus in 2031.
In a telephone interview with UGASports, athletic director Greg McGarity suggested Georgia isn’t done. Attempts to secure even more home-and-homes with other Power-5 schools are also in the works.
“We always are working on future games. So no, it doesn’t stop with this. There are other gaps we’re trying to fill and exercise,” McGarity said.
McGarity said there are two major reasons the university is being so aggressive with its non-conference scheduling.
One is the anticipation that the current four-game College Football Playoff field could possibly be expanded beyond its current four teams and Georgia wants to be sure its strength of schedule assures the Bulldogs of being in the yearly mix.
“Yes,” McGarity said. “But also, we know that keeping our fans engaged in games that are against opponents that are nationally recognized year in and year out, having them come to Athens, and going to their venue, as evidenced by the Notre Dame series, is what people want.”
Head coach Kirby Smart agrees.
“We're committed to playing in as many big games as possible, keeping Georgia on the national stage,” said Smart in a statement. “Matchups with a team like Ohio State are one of the many reasons great players come to Georgia.”
Georgia fans have much to look forward to over the next 15 years.
Three appearances in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff game at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta are already on tap (Virginia in 2020, Oregon in 2022, and Clemson in 2024).
The Bulldogs will face Oklahoma (2023 in Norman, 2031 in Athens), Clemson (2029 and 2033 in Clemson, 2030-2032 in Athens), Texas (2028 in Austin, 2029 in Athens), Florida State (2027 in Tallahassee, 2028 in Athens) and UCLA (2025 in Pasadena, 2026 in Athens).
The Bulldogs and Buckeyes originally had a memorandum of understanding have a home-and-home in 2020 and 2021, but Ohio State was forced to back out of the agreement because of a Big Ten/Pac-12 scheduling partnership, which never came to fruition after the Big Ten moved to nine conference games.
Director of Football Operations Josh Lee brokered the deal with the Buckeyes, as he has done with the with other home-and-home series.
“It’s been in the works. I know Josh Lee has really worked hard to try and schedule a Big Ten opponent, so he’s talked to various schools, and it just worked out to where there was mutual interest,” McGarity said. “Josh, in talking to his counterpart at Ohio State, was able to come to an agreement and here we are today.”
He continued, “Josh Lee does a great job of focusing on this with his counterparts at other institutions, and obviously, he’s right next to Kirby’s office, so there’s a lot of communication there. As these are presented, we talk about the opportunities. There’s always been agreement across the board. There’s a lot of good things going on from the scheduling standpoint.”
