Texas A&M? Oklahoma? Alabama? Five thoughts on Georgia football's 2024 schedule

Athens Banner-Herald The SEC is sticking with an eight-game football schedule for 2024. A nine-game slate will have to wait until at least 2025. Texas and Oklahoma officials were at the league’s spring meetings last week on the Florida Gulf Coast, and the conference will grow to 16 teams when they come aboard next year. What does the decision to stay at eight games mean for Georgia football’s 2024 schedule, a year when the College Football Playoff expands from four teams to 12? We’ll find out for sure on June 14 on — what else — a primetime SEC Network special. That will reveal just each team’s opponents. The actual dates figure to be another primetime special, perhaps months later. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey called 2024 “a one-year schedule,” after ESPN, which is going through rounds of layoffs, didn’t increase its TV deal and schools expressed concerns about how the strength of schedule fits into determining playoff selections. “This decision will provide an appropriate initial pathway into a still-to-be determined long term formula for SEC football scheduling whether that is an eight-game or nine-game format,” Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks said. “And it will allow time to evaluate the impact of the expanded College Football Playoff.” Thoughts on Georgia football’s 2024 schedule: When will the Georgia Bulldogs play Oklahoma? Georgia was supposed to play at Oklahoma this season and in Athens in 2031, but the SEC directed the schools to scrap the game after the Sooners made the decision to leave the Big 12 for the SEC. Georgia and Oklahoma could not work out a neutral site game for this season, and the Bulldogs added Ball State for a home game instead that was met by most with a yawn. “We got stuck in a situation where there really weren’t a lot of options,” Brooks said last year. The two schools began talking about playing after the thrilling 54-48 double overtime Georgia win over the Sooners in the Rose Bowl in the 2017 season. Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione sees the schools as having parallels and found it odd that they had not ever scheduled a game previously. The games were announced in May 2019 at a time when schools were looking to beef up their Power 5 schedules. Playing the UGA-Oklahoma game a year later than originally scheduled? “It’s not part of the conversation,” Castiglione said last week. “Not at all. If it happens, it’s just purely coincidental. There are several key parts in the criteria that have to be met before we even get to any specific head-to-head matchups.” Georgia and Oklahoma should see each other soon enough. The league says that by getting rid of divisions, every school will play every other school at least twice in a four-year period. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has often brought up getting teams to rotate around the conference more frequently under a new schedule format. He’s even mentioned the fact that Georgia has never played at Texas A&M since the Aggies joined the SEC for the 2012 season. That finally was to happen in 2024, but will it still? It needs to, but he was noncommittal after the 2024 eight-game schedule format was announced. “I’m pretty confident they’ll play before ’26 … whether it’s in the 24 season or 25 season, that’s to be seen,” Sankey said. “We’re attentive to the location, but every time you check another box, there’s parameters with complexity that plays out across the schedule.” Said Brooks: “I’m sure they would love to do that, but there are so many factors.” Sankey said “our fans will have the opportunity to enjoy those traditional rivalries,” in the 2024 schedule. “We understand the importance of some really key games and we look forward to those continuing.” For Georgia that should mean not only Florida but Auburn. That may leave Tennessee and South Carolina off the schedule. Those may or may not be considered secondary rivals. The Auburn game wasn’t a guarantee under the 1-7 format that was being discussed if the SEC decided to remain at eight games long term. “Obviously, the Auburn game is very important to us,” Brooks said. “We respect that rivalry and Georgia is going to advocate to keep that in any scenario we’re going to push and want that game. I know how important it is to our fan base. It’s important to me.” Most Georgia fans won’t shed tears if Vanderbilt, Missouri, Kentucky or South Carolina that matter aren’t on the schedule in 2024. They saw plenty of those SEC East teams annually. Bring on the teams that go up against Georgia few and far between. Georgia and LSU haven’t played in the regular season since 2018, and the Tigers haven’t visited Athens since 2013 in the Bulldogs’ 44-41 shootout win. Who else have Georgia fans not seen much lately? Arkansas has visited Georgia once since 2010 and Texas A&M has visited Georgia once since 1980. Ole Miss hasn’t been to Athens since 2012, but the Rebels are on the 2023 schedule for a November visit. Make Georgia-Alabama happen in regular season Georgia and Alabama haven’t played in a full capacity stadium in the regular season since 2015, the last time the Crimson Tide visited Athens. So a Kirby Smart coached Bulldog team has never hosted Alabama. The only regular-season meeting since then came in 2020 in Tuscaloosa before 19,424 in a pandemic reduced attendance. The premiere teams in the SEC will make for a marquee regular season matchup. In an expanded playoff, both are pretty good bets to reach the field so a loss in a regular season game between them shouldn’t derail that.