Smart open to moving UGA-Florida game from Jacksonville
DESTIN, Fla. — Georgia coach Kirby Smart would welcome facing the Florida Gators between the hedges again.
Smart said he would be open to moving the annual matchup with the Florida Gators to the school campuses and out of Jacksonville.
The growing number of high-profile homeand-home series during the next decade increasingly will leave Georgia with one fewer home game and a major revenue source for the athletic department. Florida recently scheduled a home-and-home series with Colorado (in 2028 and 2029) and another with Texas (in 2030 and 2031).
The Florida-Georgia home game also could serve as a mega recruiting weekend. As it stands, the Bulldogs face their rival Gators in their home state and a city full of UF fans.
“You are always looking to see what you can do to make your program better,” Smart said Tuesday during the SEC spring meetings. “Nothing is off the table, but nothing has been decided.”
The schools are contracted to play the game through the 2021 in Jacksonville, site of the game every year since 1933 other than a two-year span (1994-95) when the city’s stadium was undergoing renovations.
Smart was a freshman defensive back with the Bulldogs in 1995, when the Gators went into to Athens and delivered a 52-17 thrashing by coach Steve Spurrier’s team.
The longstanding rivalry now is tilted to the Bulldogs’ favor. The past two seasons under Smart, Georgia has beaten UF by a combined score of 78-24.
A big reason is Georgia’s recruiting under Smart and his staff. 247Sports.com ranked Bulldogs 2018 class No. 1 and the 2019 class No. 2 in the nation. The two classes featured 12 five-star recruits.
Smart said last fall a Florida-Georgia game in Athens biannually could boost the Bulldogs’ recruiting even higher. NCAA rules generally limit schools to hosting recruits during home games.
“Yeah, absolutely it costs you a recruiting weekend. You don’t get to have anybody, they don’t get to have anybody,” Smart told 247Sports’ Georgia site in November. “So our version of the LSU-Alabama game is held in Jacksonville and we don’t have prospects. So it’s not conducive to recruiting, absolutely it’s not.
“It’s just the way it’s been done here before. It’s just not great for recruiting because you lose a home game every other year and that just comes with it. But it certainly helps to have more home games.”
The Bulldogs and Gators next play in Jacksonville on Nov. 2.