Significance Of Georgia and Georgia Tech Not Playing In 2020
The rivalry often referred to as "Clean, Old Fashioned Hate" will take a one year break after 94 consecutive years with a meeting (1925-2019). Per Ross Dellenger of SINow, the SEC has announced they will play a 10-game, conference-only schedule this fall.
With the conference-only schedule format, this also puts a damper on a few other SEC-ACC rivalries. Florida-Florida State, South Carolina-Clemson, and Kentucky-Louisville will all be nixed this year.
What effect does this have on Georgia's 2020 schedule?
The only true "loss" in this scenario for Georgia is an emotional one. Any college football fan in the state of Georgia wants to see the state's biggest programs face off. This will hurt fans, players, and anyone else affiliated with the two schools from an emotional standpoint. That's a given.
But does it have an actual effect on Georgia's strength of schedule? Probably not. If anything it may help the Dawgs in their playoff hopes.
Georgia has won the last three meetings alone by a combined score of 135-35. On top of the lopsided victories, Georgia Tech has finished these past three seasons with 5-6, 7-6, and 3-9 records respectively. Even though Geoff Collins is doing a nice job recruiting for Georgia Tech, the talent gap is likely still years from making this a competitive game. Georgia generally does not benefit in the eyes of the Playoff committee by beating up on Tech in this series as they've done recently.
The Bulldogs will also be letting go of match-ups with Virginia, East Tennessee State, and Louisiana-Monroe. Dropping two FCS teams and picking up two SEC squads is only going to help bolster the difficulty of Georgia potential path to Atlanta and the CFP.
The College Football Playoff committee will still certainly has always placed a lot emphasis on strength of schedule and strength of record. An eight game SEC schedule is a gauntlet year in and year out and get tremendous respect around the country. A 10-game slate can only help Georgia and other SEC teams when it comes to comparing resumes and it definitely increases the chances of two SEC teams making the Playoff this year.
Missing out on playing Georgia Tech may hurt Georgia's emotions, but it doesn't hurt their season at all. The only fallout might be one of logistics and finances going forward as to who hosts in 2021, but that's the least of anyone's concerns at this point.
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