UF, Georgia agree to stay in Jacksonville until 2023

GAINESVILLE — The Florida-Georgia game is not going anywhere, at least for now.

A significant bump in compensation helped keep the game in Jacksonville.

The two schools and the city of Jacksonville announced Friday they have agreed to keep the game in Jacksonville until at least 2023, with an option for the Gators and Bulldogs to extend the deal two additional years until 2025.

The schools currently receive $250,000 per game, but in 2020 and 2021 each school will receive $1 million per game, according to a copy of the agreement obtained by The Athletic’s Seth Emerson. In 2022 and 2023, that figure grows to $1,250,000 for each school.

Each school also receives a $60,000 travel stipend, with Georgia receiving an additional $350,000 for air travel.

The game has been played in Jacksonville every season since 1933, other than 1994 and 1995 when the stadium, site of the annual

Gator Bowl, was being renovated to also become home for the Jaguars, then an NFL expansion team.

The No. 7 Gators (7-1, 4-1 SEC) and No. 10 Bulldogs (6-1, 3-1) are scheduled to meet at 3:30 p.m. on Nov. 2 in TIAA Bank Field.

“We are excited to continue one of the great traditions in all of college football in having the Florida-Georgia game in Jacksonville,” UF athletics director Scott Stricklin said in a statement.

“The Florida-Georgia game is more than a football game, it is a weeklong celebration of two storied programs meeting on a neutral field that has created generational memories for both fan bases.”

This past spring, Georgia coach Kirby Smart, a former Bulldogs player, said he would be open to moving the annual matchup with the Gators to the school campuses and out of Jacksonville.

The growing number of high-profile home-and-home series during the next decade increasingly will leave UF and Georgia with one fewer home game and a major revenue source for the athletic department.

The Gators-Bulldogs clash also could serve as a major recruiting weekend for both programs. Additionally, UF is located about 75 miles from Jacksonville, while Georgia’s Athens is around 350 miles away.

UF coach Dan Mullen said in May he respected Smart’s point of view from a recruiting standpoint and was aware of the ever-changing landscape of college football.

“You never know what direction college football’s going in at that point of it,” Mullen said at the SEC Spring Meetings in Destin.

For now, one of college football’s longstanding traditions will continue.

“The extension ensures the historical preservation of the game in Jacksonville which has been part of the national college football landscape since 1933,” said Georgia A.D. Greg McGarity, a former high-ranking athletic administrator at UF. “The city of Jacksonville has once again demonstrated its commitment to this game through significant financial considerations to each school.”