Kirby Smart has an idea for why UGA is last in the SEC in home night games

Despite being the SEC’s highest-rated team, Georgia still doesn’t know if it will have a home SEC night game this season.

The league announced the latest round of game times and TV networks on Monday for the week of Nov. 14.

Georgia’s game against Missouri will kick off at either 3:30 p.m. or 7:30 p.m. The league is waiting to see how this coming weekend’s slate of games plays out before making a final decision.

No. 2 Georgia visits No. 12 Ole Miss. No. 19 Missouri hosts No. 10 Texas. And No. 9 Alabama visits No. 15 LSU.

The Texas-LSU game on Nov. 14 is the other game the league is weighing to put in the 7:30 p.m. window.

Night games are defined as starting at 7 p.m. or later.

In the event the SEC goes with LSU, it will be the Tigers’ third home night game this season and the 17th since the league’s new television schedule started in 2024. LSU leads the conference in home night games.

By comparison, Georgia has had just four since the beginning of the 2024 season. That is tied with Mississippi State for the fewest in that same span.

On the flip side, Georgia will play its sixth road night game of the current TV deal this coming weekend against Ole Miss. That ties the Bulldogs with Florida and Tennessee for the most since the new TV schedule started.

Lane Kiffin made his thoughts known earlier this year when it comes to night games, specifically with LSU not getting one against Alabama this weekend.

Georgia coach Kirby Smart was not as critical of the game selections.

“The discrepancy is what it is,” Smart said. “I don’t speculate on it. I don’t get into the conspiracy theories everybody else does. I worry about playing the games.”

The Georgia coach noted that the Bulldogs have not had many marquee home matchups in recent years. Georgia’s 2024 season-opener against Clemson was a 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff. LSU’s home game against the Tigers this season was a night game.

Smart specifically brought the Florida game as an example of a marquee matchup being lost. That game has traditionally been played at 3:30 p.m. The last time Georgia and Florida played a game in a non-neutral site was back in 1995, when Smart was a player at Georgia.

“Why haven’t you played at home at night? We haven’t had as many premier matchups,” Smart said. “We never play Florida at home. That’s one of our premier matchups that lands on 3:30 all the time. We haven’t had the home opportunities since Notre Dame.”

The Notre Dame game came in reference to Georgia’s 2019 home game against the Fighting Irish.

Of Georgia’s four night home games, one of those came against Georgia Tech at the end of the 2024 season. That game was played on a Friday.

The other three regular-season games came against Tennessee in 2024 and then against Alabama and Texas last season.

While Smart downplays the start time, players and fans feel differently.

“For me, night games are just always more fun,” Georgia running back Nate Frazier said. “I guess you can see the fireworks better, or you hear the crowd more at night. It’s just the lights, and I guess when you get hit, the little butterflies you see in the air, it shines more. So it’s just more exciting, man. I guess it just builds up a lot more fire in you, so that’s how it is for me, and I feel like it’s the same thing for everybody else, too.”

Georgia began using fireworks to celebrate touchdowns during the team’s 2024 game against Tennessee. That was Georgia’s first night game, which was played on Nov. 16.

Under the new SEC television contract, Georgia is 3-1 in home night games and 4-1 in road SEC night games. Both losses came against Alabama.

The last time Georgia faced Ole Miss in Oxford, Mississippi, it was a 3:30 p.m. start. Ironically, Kiffin, then the Rebels’ head coach, complained about Ole Miss not getting a night game kickoff. It didn’t end up making a difference for Ole Miss, as it crushed Georgia 28-10.