Georgia football: Non-rivals that the Bulldogs have played the most

Georgia football has played at least 10 games with 23 different teams, but only a small handful are, or have been considered rivals.

Georgia football, like other upper-tier programs, has a lot of rivals both out of and in conference. We have Florida, Auburn, Tennessee and South Carolina in the SEC. And Georgia Tech, and many still consider Clemson, rivals from outside the SEC. Just being in the same division as Kentucky, Vanderbilt and Missouri somewhat make them rivals by definition.

The biggest factor in forming a rivalry is the frequency of the games. You can’t call two teams rivals if they’ve only met eight times in 125 years. A couple of days ago, I wrote about teams who were once rivals with Georgia. Those were teams that Georgia played almost annually for a few decades. And the games were also very competitive.

But not every team that Georgia has met often historically can be called a rival, and I’ve singled out nine teams that Georgia has played at least 10 times. These are teams who either haven’t played Georgia in a long time or just don’t play the Bulldogs frequently.

SEC non-rivals

Technically, by definition, every team in the SEC are rivals. The definition from Google is “a person or thing competing with another for the same objective or for superiority in the same field of activity.” But that’s not how rivalries are seen in fandoms, which is why I am creating a category of three SEC teams who are all in the SEC West.

Alabama isn’t on here because that was once a rivalry, we’re even mentioned in their fight song. They also weren’t on the dead rivalry list because we still play Alabama on a set schedule, besides championship games.

Louisiana State Tigers – 30 Games

I almost didn’t put LSU on this list. I thought about all the great Georgia versus LSU games of my lifetime. The first home-and-home series between the two teams in 1998 and 1999 were classics. Both were decided by just one point.

The regular season games in 2003, 2008, 2009 and 2013 were also great games that were among the SEC’s best for their respective years. And of course meeting in three SEC Championship Games makes the Georgia versus LSU series special.

The reason why their on this list is because a true rivalry hasn’t brewed yet. Until the SEC makes a radical change to their scheduling, we’re going to wait five years between meetings unless we play them in Atlanta.

Of the 30 games played between the Dawgs and Bayou Bengals, 20 were played before the SEC began making every team meet on a regular basis in 1992. That’s 20 games in 62 years from their first meeting in 1928. And they didn’t play at all between 1953 and 1978.

The height of the Georgia versus LSU series before 1998 was 11 games played from 1943-to-1953, including two meetings in 1943. LSU won six of those games, four by one score. Georgia won four games, each one sided. The other was a tie in 1950.

LSU leads the series 16-13-1. And both are elite teams in the SEC. Any Georgia versus LSU game merits a lot of hype. And they’re practically on the verge of becoming true rivals. If only we played them more often.

Mississippi State Bulldogs – 24 Games

It’s staggering that two founding and remaining members of the SEC have only played 24 games against each other. But that’s the case with Georgia and Mississippi State. They’ve never even played more than three years in a row. But they have played nine home-and-home series, including six before 1992. Of course Georgia leads the series 18-6 and we once had a nine-game winning streak.

Arkansas Razorbacks – 14 Games

Georgia and Arkansas have only been conference opponents since 1992 when the Razorbacks joined the conference. But before that, Arkansas was a thorn in our side. Georgia first met Arkansas in the 1969 Sugar Bowl with the Razorbacks winning 16-2 to keep Georgia from winning the consensus National Championship.

They then spoiled the Dream and Wonder Dawgs season by beating them 31-10 in the Cotton Bowl. Georgia got revenge with wins in the 1987 Liberty Bowl and the 1991 Independence Bowl to knot the series.

Georgia and Arkansas remained knotted at three- wins each after the 1993 season when they split their first home-and-home with Arkansas in the SEC. Georgia took full control of the series with a six-game winning streak from 2000-to-2009.