Biggest surprises from the 2020 Georgia football schedule

Georgia football starts the year with Arkansas before hosting Auburn and Tennessee, and traveling to Alabama. Florida game bumped back a week.

The new 2020 Georgia football schedule is finally here and it came with a heap of surprises. 

The Bulldogs open the year on Sept. 26 with a tune-up game at Arkansas before a brutal three-week gauntlet where the Bulldogs host Auburn and Tennessee before traveling to Tuscaloosa. Georgia passes the halfway point in the season after a road-trip to Kentucky.

Per usual, Georgia gets a week off before playing Florida. But this year, the Cocktail Party falls the week after Halloween instead of the week of. After the trip to Jacksonville, the Bulldogs close the year at Missouri; at home against Mississippi State; and on the road against South Carolina and Vanderbilt.

Here are the biggest surprises the SEC had for the Georgia Bulldogs with the reshuffled 2020 schedule:

Florida moving back a week

Since 1992, Georgia's annual neutral-site meeting with Florida has been held on the Saturday closest to Halloween. That tradition is bucked this year as the Bulldogs and Gators both get Halloween off before meeting a week later on Nov. 7.

Of all of the possibilities that came with shaking up the 2020 schedules, this was the last one anyone expected. The Cocktail Party and Halloween have gone together for 28 years. 

Georgia and Florida meeting after Halloween isn't without precedent, however. That weekend was the traditional date for the rivalry for most of its history, up until the SEC expansion of 1992.

Playing Tennessee in week three

Georgia playing Tennessee in early October doesn't seem like a surprise. After all, Georgia and Tennessee have played each other around early-Sept. to mid-Oct. every year since 1996.

Keep in mind, 2020 was supposed to be the year this tradition ended. The original 2020 schedule had Georgia and Tennessee playing on Nov. 14. Tennessee essentially traded its position on Georgia's schedule with Auburn, after the Tigers made a request to the SEC to no longer play Georgia and Alabama in the same month.

Georgia vs. Alabama in week four

This is a surprise, but the reasoning makes a lot of sense. Alabama in week four completes a difficult three-week gauntlet for the Bulldogs. 

For the SEC, having Georgia and Alabama play early in the year ensures its likely best two teams are healthy. Georgia vs. Alabama at full strength is a huge rating draw, especially in a year where two power-five conferences aren't playing. What competition will this game have?

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