The Event Formerly Known As The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party is about to become The South’s Largest Traveling Road Show. Just days before the latest installment of Georgia vs. Florida, news broke that the longtime rivalry will be played in Atlanta in 2026 and Tampa in 2027.
The news, first reported by Action Network's Brett McMurphy, is neither shocking nor surprising, but still a touch depressing. Jacksonville's EverBank Stadium (formerly known as TIAA Bank Field, EverBank Field, AllTel Stadium and Jacksonville Municipal Stadium) will be undergoing a long-planned major renovation over that period, rendering it unsuitable for the kind of earth-shattering partying that accompanies every Florida-Georgia game.
The series has been played in Jacksonville almost every year starting in 1933. The 1994 and 1995 games were played in Gainesville and Athens, when the old Gator Bowl was demolished and EverBank was built to host the then-expansion Jaguars.
Which leads to a rather obvious question: Why not play this glorious, vicious, sprawling, chaotic rivalry on the campuses of the two challengers? Campuses which are A) beautiful, B) home to rather nice stadiums of their own and C) surprisingly close to the vast majority of students who attend these fine universities. So why take the show on the road?
You know the answer: money. So, so much money. Much like the decision to move the annual Georgia-Georgia Tech game, another massive rivalry, to Mercedes-Benz Stadium for a year, money trumps tradition and nostalgia.
Normally, in home-and-home situations, the rivals trade revenue opportunities back and forth, with the home team claiming the dawg’s (or gator’s) share of ticket revenue. But on a neutral site, both teams share that revenue — and in the case of Georgia-Florida, the host city also ponies up some incentive cash and takes care of logistics. It’s a win-win for both universities, even if it means a whole lot of travel for the blue-and-orange and red-and-black faithful.
The contract between the schools that runs through the 2025 game calls for each school to receive $1.5 million a year from Jacksonville. That’s in addition to a 50-50 split on total ticket revenue, reported in recent years at around $3.75 million per year. Jacksonville also reimburses each team $60,000 for travel, lodging and gameday expenses, with Georgia getting an extra $350,000 on top of that for air travel.
Two years ago, Georgia's Kirby Smart groused about the fact that hosting a major game outside of Athens cost him valuable recruiting opportunities, but that was just sound and fury. Smart knows full well how much money comes in by playing the game at a neutral site, whether it's in Jacksonville, in Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium in 2026 or Tampa's Raymond James Stadium in 2027.
"I think the parties involved did a great job stepping up and making it [the stadium tour] worthwhile for both universities,” Smart said on Wednesday at the SEC’s coaches’ teleconference. “Excited about the opportunity to play it, you know, two different locations, so that'll be unique and maybe we learn from those experiences."
You don’t need to read between any lines to get what “stepping up and making it worthwhile” means. Jacksonville wrote a number on a piece of paper, Georgia and Florida added a zero and happily accepted. Or something along those lines.
"Look, Kirby and I probably both agree that it would be awesome to play home-and-home, but we also know there's a tremendous amount of revenue created by having this game at a neutral site,” Florida’s Billy Napier added. “Money makes the world go ‘round, and certainly the amount of revenue, there's a significant difference in the revenue that's generated."
As enjoyable as it would have been for each campus to welcome their hated rival into their den, the financial realities were impossible to overcome or avoid. But there are some small signs of hope for the traditionalists.
The first round of the College Football Playoff will take place at the home stadiums of seeds 5 through 8 against seeds 9 through 12. Schools have the option of moving the game away from their home stadium, but on Wednesday, CFP executive director Rich Clark indicated that none of the programs which could potentially host a game were willing to move it off campus. So there could well be some playoff games in Columbus (Ohio), Athens (Georgia), College Station (Pennsylvania), Clemson (South Carolina) or other notable campus sites.
Florida-Georgia moving to other NFL stadiums for two years isn’t necessarily a significant blow to tradition. Hey, if nothing else, it means that the Jaguars won’t be the second-best team in their own building for a little while. But the more comfortable we get with college teams playing in NFL stadiums, the more likely it is that college teams will play more of their games in NFL stadiums.
This year's version of Georgia-Florida kicks off at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday. The all-time series stands at 55-44-2 in favor of Georgia. The Bulldogs have won six of the last seven and are 16.5-point favorites to extend that run.