Georgia Football, Clemson Make Call on Series: How a Great College Football Clash has Died

The uncertainty of the landscape of college football is at least in part (if not the major reason why) this series was canceled

Georgia Football DL Mykel Williams sacks Clemson QB Cade Klubnik during UGA's 34-3 win in Atlanta in 2024. | Dean Legge | Dawg Post

ATHENS - Georgia Football and the Clemson Tigers made the call on a four-game series scheduled to start later this decade.

The games, which were scheduled to be play at Clemson in 2029 and 2033, and in Athens in 2030 and 2032 have been scrapped according to reporting from the Athens Banner-Herald’s Marc Weiszer.

Clemson and Georgia “mutually agreed to cancel the games" according to a document Weiszer obtained through an open records act. That document was signed in March. UGA and Clemson had agreed to the new set of games last decade.

The cancellation of the games has significance for both schools, but particularly for the Tigers. Clemson athletics director Graham Neff told the outlet Tiger Illustrated “we think football games are best played on a college campus.”

Aug 31, 2024; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Georgia Bulldogs linebacker Jalon Walker (11) sacks Clemson Tigers quarterback Cade Klubnik (2) during the fourth quarter of the 2024 Aflac Kickoff Game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ken Ruinard-USA TODAY Sports | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect

The uncertainty of the landscape of college football is at least in part (if not the major reason why) this series was canceled. Georgia and the rest of the SEC moved to a nine-game conference schedule this season. That’s the case for Clemson and the ACC in 2027. For Georgia that means at least one more away game every other year.

Like Clemson, Georgia plays an in-state, out-of-conference rival at the conclusion of of each season. The Bulldogs also play a neutral-site game each year with rival Florida. So the addition of Clemson or any other out-of-conference game to the schedule is a matter of making the nine-game SEC schedule as well as the Georgia Tech game fit along with the 11th legitimate game on a 12-game schedule.

The possible expansion of the College Football Playoff could have ramifications for Georgia as well. There have been discussions of a scheduling agreement between the Big Ten and the SEC for games that would start at the beginning of seasons. Currently, SEC schools are required to play ten games against power-four schools - nine of which come against conference foes. The 10th game has to come against Notre Dame, a Big 12, Big Ten or ACC school. Because of the Georgia Tech game, Georgia already complies with that yearly requirement.

But that leaves only two other games for the Bulldogs to host home contests in the fall. Typically those games have come against directional schools or FCS foes like this year’s clashes against Western Kentucky and Tennessee State.

Clemson was a yearly opponent for Georgia for decades. The Bulldogs hold a massive advantage in the series, 44-18-4, which dates back to 1897. Georgia has dominated the series since 1991 - losing only once in the last quarter century to the Tigers (2013).

For years the game served as a serviceable game for both schools. The 70-miles between Clemson and Georgia meant that the two schools could bus to the game. For decades Georgia played both Clemson and South Carolina each year - playing each of the schools from the Palmetto State either home or away, and then doing the opposite a year later.

At the time the Southeastern Conference played only six conference games. The addition of the Tigers and Gamecocks as well as the rivalry game against the Yellow Jackets meant Georgia had nine of its 11 regular season games penciled in each season.

But in 1990, South Carolina was invited to join the SEC. Two years later the league split into two divisions, and added two more league games. The Bulldogs now had eight SEC games and Georgia Tech - playing the Tigers would make that ten difficult games a year at a time when losing even one game could spoil your season. Georgia continued to play Clemson anyway, but started alternating the years it would play the Tigers. Rather than home and away in alternating seasons, Georgia-Clemson was played twice in a row, then two years off, then twice in a row again.

But by 1996 it had become too much, and the series went on hiatus until Georgia welcomed the Tigers to Athens in 2002 for an epic showdown that the Dawgs won late - a springboard to a 13-1 season. A year later UGA beat Clemson 30-0 in Death Valley.

A decade passed before the two schools played again - once in Clemson in 2013, and in Athens in 2014. That’s the last time the two programs have played on campus. The last two meetings - Georgia’s 10-3 upset win over the Tigers in the first game of the 2021 national championship season took place in Charlotte, and UGA’s 34-3 drubbing of the Tigers was in Atlanta.

What was one a yearly affair between the neighbors now seems gone for at least a significant amount of time outside of the possibility of playing in the College Football Playoff.