UGA football: 2020 meetings with Georgia Tech and Virginia in jeopardy
To preserve the 2020 college football season, conferences are considering cutting out non-conference games. UGA football stands to lose four opponents from its 2020 schedule.
The rivalry known as “Clean, Old Fashioned Hate” has run uninterrupted since 1925. But with the ACC and SEC considering only playing in-conference games in 2020, UGA football will likely have to take a year off from playing in-state rival Georgia Tech.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to announce a change to its 2020 schedules which would eliminate non-conference games. The Southeastern Conference is also expected to discuss the possibility of making similar changes. A straight elimination of non-conference games would snap a string of 95 annual meetings between the Bulldogs and Yellow Jackets, as well as cancel Georgia’s season opener against Virginia.
The last time Georgia and Georgia Tech didn’t play each other was during an eight-year stretch from 1917-to-1924. Previously, the longest drought between meetings was just three years (1894-to-1896). After resuming the rivalry on a yearly basis in 1925, “Clean, Old Fashioned Hate” become one of the hottest rivalries in southern college football.
After 95 years, it’s hard to fathom a season without a Georgia versus Georgia Tech football game. The vast majority of fans on both sides have never experienced such a season before. Georgia Tech, Auburn and the SEC East rivals are the seven teams everyone knows Georgia is going to play before the schedule is announced. Those games are assumed years, if not decades in advance. That’s how standard those games are for the Bulldogs.
However, “Clean, Old Fashioned Hate” is only in jeopardy at the moment. The SEC and ACC have four annual crossover in-state rivalries. The power five conferences may all opt for nine-game schedules rather than eight-game schedules, leaving a week open for four crossover rivalries. Nothing is set in stone yet, there’s still some time to save these games.
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Georgia vs. Virginia on the other hand, that game is more than likely canned for 2020. But since it is a Chick-fil-A Season Kickoff Game, the three parties will likely negotiate a new meeting for the future.