Peach Bowl Inc. CEO and President Gary Stokan considers himself an eternal optimist.

That mindset explains his feelings as to his thoughts on whether or not Georgia’s Sept. 7 opener against Virginia at Mercedes-Benz Stadium will actually be played.

One of three games scheduled for this year’s Kickoff Series, the Bulldogs and Cavaliers follow Florida State and West Virginia on Sept 5, with North Carolina and Auburn set to tangle on Sept. 12.

“I think it will happen, and we’re preparing for it with my staff, as well as the other two games on Sept. 5 and Sept. 12,” Stokan said in a telephone interview with UGASports. “We’re in contact with all the ADs from the six schools, as well as the conference offices, kind of waiting until the end of July, when they come out with the statement of whether they’re going to play conference only, conference plus one or conference plus two, or whether they’re going to push the season back or play in September.”

Bulldog athletic director Greg McGarity hopes the game is played as well.

“I’ve talked to Gary and Carla (Virginia athletic director Carla Williams), and we all want to play the game,” McGarity said. “But again, that’s going to be dictated by ACC rules on start dates. There may be SEC rules on a start date, because there’s not one governing body that says this is the date.”

Stokan said the Peach Bowl is currently modeling a lot of different scenarios and will be ready to move once the conferences announce their intentions at the end of the month.

“Schedule-wise, the ACC, SEC, and Big 12 would all like to play their full schedule. But I think they’re also looking at different scenarios of conference games only, conference games plus one Power Five, conference games plus two power fives, and also the full schedule,” Stokan said. “I think they’re looking at scenarios that give them some flexibility with some open dates, so they can move guys should they be canceled.”

Until then, Stokan’s group will continue working with officials at Mercedes-Benz Stadium as far as protocols and potential capacity before examining the budgets to present to the respective schools, as far as what the ticket allotments and potential payouts might be.

With less than full stadiums, those payouts would obviously be reduced due to the loss of ticket sales.

If it’s determined that no fans are allowed, the game might not be played at all.

“If there are no fans, then it’s hard for us to put on the games, because there’s no revenue, and there’s no revenue through sponsorship. That’s the two revenue streams we have to make payouts to the schools, and paying Mercedes Stadium,” Stokan said. “In that case, the game might go back to either one of the campuses.”

But even then, there would be no guarantee, especially in the case of Georgia, which still intends to play arch-rival Georgia Tech at the end of the year.

“At least four of the ADs want to go conference-plus-one, at least, so they can play those rivalry games—Georgia-Georgia Tech, Florida-Florida State, Louisville-Kentucky, and South Carolina-Clemson,” Stokan said. “If they go in that direction, then our play would be, we would lose Florida State because they would play Florida, and we’d lose Georgia because they’d play Georgia Tech.

“We’d match up West Virginia and Virginia in one of our kickoff games and still the next week have the North Carolina-Auburn game as scheduled.”

If fans are allowed, Mercedes-Benz Stadium would decide how many could attend.

“We’re working with Ticketmaster on a software that would allow us to project the seating. We model right now at 25 percent, 30 percent, and 50 percent,” Stokan said. “We’ll just talk to the medical people and find out with social distancing at the time of the game what’s the best capacity to have in the stadium.”

Other changes would likely also be put into place, possibly including no bands and cheerleaders on the field, and no team walks or check presentations.

Post-game media interviews would be conducted via Zoom.

“Our goal throughout this whole thing would be to keep the safety of the team and the staff as the priority, as well as any fans or media that would attend the game—anybody that would step inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium that day,” Stokan said. “There are a lot of things that we typically wouldn’t do, if we had our normal kickoff game. But this is the new norm we’re in.”