Georgia football's game against Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff has officially been postponed to Thursday, Jan. 2. However, the time the game will be played has been up in the air and a big cause for debate.
The game originally was still set for 8:45 pm EST on Jan. 2, which is the same time it was originally scheduled for before the game was delayed. However, that was a time that both Georgia and Notre Dame were not fans of. And after a lot of lobbying by both programs, the game has officially been moved up to 4:00 pm EST on Jan. 2.
Change was made to prevent a larger advantage for Penn State
So why did Georgia and Notre Dame want this game to be played earlier in the day? It all has to do with them not wanting Penn State to have any larger of an advantage then they already have.
Penn State already won their quarterfinal matchup against Boise State on Dec. 31, so they already had an extra day of rest compared to whoever their next opponent is. So now that Georgia's game has been moved one day, Penn State now has two extra days of rest which is even more of an advantage.
So the last thing either program wanted was for this advantage for Penn State to continue to grow, so moving the game up a few more hours prevents this advantage from growing even more. Now that the game is a few hours earlier, both Notre Dame and Georgia will be able to fly home that same day instead of having to fly in the middle of the night or stay in New Orleans for another day. This helps diminish the large advantage Penn State already has.
Who knows if this advantage will actually play out in Penn State's favor or not, but Georgia and Notre Dame succeeded in moving the game up which is a big deal for whoever wins their quarterfinal matchup.