Georgia football gets one notable advantage when it comes its 2025 schedule
ATHENS — Georgia football has a schedule advantage when it comes to its SEC counterparts this season.
Yes, the Bulldogs still face a difficult schedule even after knocking off Tennessee on the road Saturday. Georgia has games left against the No. 8, 13, 14, 18 and No. 22 ranked teams in this week’s AP Poll. As it stands now, six of Georgia’s 12 opponents are ranked.
The road trip to Tennessee was difficult, one Georgia was fortunate to leave with a win. After the game, Georgia quickly hopped on a flight and got back to Athens.
“We felt good,” linebacker Chris Cole said. “You know, just to get that type of win, you know, the SEC is a hard place to play and that being our first opponent and that type of game was awesome. So, we felt good. You know, we was having fun in the locker room, on the plane talking about it and just having a great time.”
Georgia will play four more games away from Sanford Stadium this season: at Auburn, against Florida in Jacksonville, Florida, at Mississippi State and then against Georgia Tech at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on the final week of the season.
Add in the Tennessee game and Georgia will travel 1,890 miles this season from stadium to stadium. That is the fewest amount in the SEC, by a healthy margin.
The mileage was determined using the straight-line tool on Google Maps from stadium to stadium.
Behind Georgia is Kentucky, which will travel 2,502 miles. That includes a trip to Sanford Stadium in October.
On the high end of travel this season is the Texas Longhorns. Steve Sarkisian’s bunch has to travel 9,026 miles this season. In addition to SEC road games against Georgia, Kentucky, Florida and Mississippi State, Texas also had a road game at Ohio State this season.
Texas traveled more miles for the Ohio State game, a 14-7 loss, than Georgia will all season.
It helps that Georgia’s game against Georgia Tech is only 60 miles away. That is the shortest distance any SEC team will travel this season for a game. That contest was moved from Bobby Dodd Stadium to Mercedes-Benz Stadium, yet it adds only one mile in terms of distance.
The next closest would be Florida’s trip to Jacksonville for the game against Georgia on Nov. 1. That is a 122-mile round-trip for Florida, compared to a 540-mile round-trip for the Bulldogs.
Only the game against Mississippi State is a longer trip for Georgia this season. Georgia will travel 624 miles to Davis-Wade Stadium in November. That comes the week after Georgia’s trip to Florida.
While Texas does have the farthest distance this season of SEC teams, the Longhorns did get an off week before traveling to Georgia. The Auburn Tigers also get an off week before hosting Georgia. Auburn has early-season road trips to Oklahoma and Texas A&M prior to the off week.
The single longest trip made between SEC foes this season comes when Oklahoma visits South Carolin on Oct. 18. That game will be an 1,886-mile round trip.
What’s interesting about Georgia’s schedule is that it actually wasn’t supposed to be the shortest in the SEC this season. Georgia was originally set to open this year with a road trip to UCLA. That would’ve been a 3,962-mile round trip for Georgia.
Had Georgia made that trek, the Bulldogs would’ve traveled the fourth-most miles in the SEC this season.
As for an impact, Kirby Smart downplayed the distance. The time of the game has a much greater.
“I think the recovery is not much difference,” Smart said. “I think it’s a lot more about when you play than where you play. The night game, getting back has a much more impact. Getting back at 2, 3 a.m. than how far you travel. I don’t think that plays a significance. I think it’s a more significant night versus day.”
Georgia’s game against Tennessee was a 3:30 p.m. ET start. Games against Georgia Tech and Florida are also set for that same window, with the Georgia Tech contest coming on Friday.
The only night road game Georgia has this season comes against Auburn on Oct. 12. Following that road trip, Georgia will host Ole Miss at home.
A year ago, Georgia had to go to Texas, to Alabama, to Kentucky and to Ole Miss. Only the Ole Miss game was played during daylight hours.
The schedule balances better this season, even if it doesn’t make the biggest difference in the way Smart sees the overall schedule.
Miles traveled among SEC teams in 2025
| Miles traveled | |
|---|---|
| Georgia | 1890 |
| Kentucky | 2502 |
| Ole Miss | 2520 |
| Tennessee | 2694 |
| Alabama | 2990 |
| Missouri | 3084 |
| Vanderbilt | 3676 |
| Mississippi State | 3748 |
| Arkansas | 3976 |
| LSU | 4212 |
| Texas A&M | 4746 |
| Florida | 5684 |
| Auburn | 5690 |
| South Carolina | 5922 |
| Oklahoma | 7450 |
| Texas | 9026 |
About the Author
Connor Riley has been covering the University of Georgia since 2014 before moving to DawgNation full-time before the 2018 season. He helps in all areas of the site such as team coverage, recruiting, video production, social media and podcasting. He graduated from the University of Georgia in 2016.
