Georgia football travels to Atlanta this week to play Georgia Tech and they return next week to play in the SEC Championship Game. The Bulldogs may play one more game in Atlanta in either the Peach Bowl or National Championship Game.
Who doesn’t love a home-away-from-home? We would all love a lake or beach house, a cabin in the mountains, or just any town to visit regularly to get away from home. College football programs aren’t that different. Because of how important home-field advantages are, having a city away from campus where teams and fans can feel at home is very valuable.
After 125 years, Georgia football doesn’t have that second home. The team shares Jacksonville. And the venues in Columbus, Macon and Augusta haven’t kept up with other college stadiums, so Georgia’s hasn’t played in either city in almost 60 years. That just leaves Atlanta as the only other city that the Bulldogs have visited regularly since the program began in 1892.
But I wouldn’t exactly call Atlanta a home-away-from-home. Besides biennial trips to play Georgia Tech, Georgia hasn’t made a major stamp on the city’s biggest football stages. The Bulldogs have only played in five of the 49 Peach Bowls, five of the 23 SEC Championship Game’s played in Atlanta, and just two of the 13 Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Games.
Bowl, championship and other major games existed in Atlanta for five decades, and the second closest powerhouse college football team only played in 12 such games. To some that might not seem like a big deal, but look at how Alabama has taken over Atlanta. The capital of Georgia has become a second home for the University of Alabama.
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The Crimson Tide have only played in one Peach Bowl (because they’ve played in 32 bowl games seen as more prestigious than the Peach). That one being last season when the Peach Bowl hosted a semi-final game in the playoffs. But they’ve appeared in nine SEC Championship Game’s in Atlanta, and five Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Games.
And I don’t think that it’s a coincidence that Alabama’s takeover of Atlanta coincided with them leaving Birmingham in the 1990’s and 2000’s. They understood the value of a second home. The Tide even had four homes at one point.
Tuscaloosa was always for the smaller games. The big games were saved for Birmingham and either Mobile or Montgomery. There the fan base was much more rabid. These were the fans that were dedicated enough to follow the Tide many miles away from campus.
As the mecca of college football in the south shifted from Birmingham to Atlanta in the 1990’s, the Crimson Tide wasted no time in making Atlanta their second home. They expect to appear in Atlanta immediately following every regular season now and the fans take over the city as if it was the University of Alabama campus.
The goal of neutral site games is to negate home-field advantages. And yet, the crowd at the previous three SEC Title games felt very pro-Alabama. And it’s not just the SEC Title game, Alabama is almost the default for the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Game. They’ve played in five already and are scheduled to play in two more through 2021.
As of right now, Atlanta is Alabama’s city. It isn’t Georgia’s, Florida’s, Auburn’s, LSU’s or even Georgia Tech’s. When the Tide come to Atlanta, they might as well be the home team. And it’s about time that their reign in Atlanta comes to an end. It’s time for Georgia to take Atlanta.
The Bulldogs should have a home-field advantage every time they play in Mercedes-Benz Stadium regardless of if the opponent is Virginia or Alabama. Georgia should be the default team out of the SEC for the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Game.
That takeover can begin this Saturday in Bobby Dodd Stadium. Georgia needs to go to Georgia Tech’s campus and leave with a decisive victory. And then next week, regardless of if the opponent is Alabama or that cow college near the Georgia border, the Bulldogs need to win the first SEC Championship Game in the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
And finally, the Dawgs should take a little road trip to New Orléans and beat whoever that committee matches us with so they can end their season back in Atlanta playing for a National Championship.
Extend that to next season. Georgia should take over the SEC completely. Ensure that the Bulldog Nation builds a second capitol in Atlanta for the foreseeable future.
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Start making more deals with Chick-Fil-A to open more seasons in the Benz. If Alabama has two scheduled, Georgia should have at least two. If SunTrust Park ever hosts a major college football game, the Georgia Bulldogs better be their first choice.
Atlanta and Athens are separated by a measly 72 miles. It’s time to claim the capital of our state as a major city in the Bulldog Nation.