Once again, Greg McGarity is downplaying all the fervor over a possible regular-season matchup between Georgia and Notre Dame
As he did last fall, the Bulldogs’ athletic director on Tuesday confirmed that UGA has “had talks with” Notre Dame about a potential home-and-home series in distant future. But he added that Georgia has “had talks with lots of people” and that a matchup with the Irish is no more imminent than any of the others.
CBSSports.com resurrected the discussion on Tuesday citing “a source” that claims the two schools are working on a potential 2018-19.
“We talk with a lot of institutions about future scheduling and Notre Dame is one of them,” McGarity said Tuesday. “But we’re not going to play these things out in public unless we have something in writing, and we have nothing in writing.”
Besides, as McGarity pointed out, the SEC hasn’t even determined yet whether it will go forward with an eight- and nine-game schedule.
“That’s a pretty important piece,” he said.
Georgia and Notre Dame have not played since the 1980 season, when the Bulldogs defeated the Fighting Irish in the Sugar Bowl to win the national championship.
The Notre Dame last played an SEC team when it lost to Alabama 42-14 in the 2013 BCS championship game. Before that they lost to LSU 41-14 in the 2006 Sugar Bowl.
The last time the Irish played a regular-season game against the SEC came in 41-21 win over Tennessee in 2005. Last August, Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly mentioned a matchup with Georgia would “be a natural” and there has been intrigue about it ever since.
Currently UGA’s football schedules are set only through the 2015 season.
“I think it’d be great,” McGarity said. “We just don’t know yet if we can make it happen.”
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