DESTIN, Fla. — The football games scheduled for 2020 and 2021 between Georgia and Ohio State have been called off.
Ohio State recently informed Georgia that it is exercising its right to cancel the games, which had been set up in a memorandum of understanding between the schools in December 2010.
“They couldn’t make it happen due to the Pac 12-Big Ten football schedule deal,” Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity said Thursday, referring to a recent agreement between those conferences for a series of regular-season matchups beginning in 2017.
“And we understood,” McGarity added.
McGarity said Ohio State would not face a financial penalty for canceling the games, one of which was to have been played in Athens and the other at Ohio State. Specific dates had not been set.
UGA: no to nine
Expanding the SEC football schedule from eight games to nine has been discussed at the conference’s spring meetings this week, although there appears to be little, if any, immediate support for the idea.
Perhaps the strongest objections come from three schools that have major rivalry games against non-conference opponents — Georgia, Florida and South Carolina. They argue that a ninth SEC game, on top of non-conference games against Georgia Tech, Florida State and Clemson, respectively, would be too much on an annual basis.
McGarity was asked if the Bulldogs would ever consider dropping the Tech game if the SEC schedule expanded.
“Boy, not during my watch,” McGarity replied.
Spurrier: Pay players
As he also did at last year’s spring meetings, South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier pitched the idea of SEC football coaches paying their players $300 per game out of their own pockets. Spurrier said his fellow coaches unanimously agreed this time.
“We’re trying to get extra money ... to our players because of the tremendous amount of money — billions — they’re bringing [in],” Spurrier said.
His proposal is moot, though, because NCAA rules don’t allow such payments from coaches. And Florida president Bernie Machen said the idea is not even on the SEC presidents’ agenda here.
The SEC does support NCAA legislation that would allow schools to provide student-athletes a stipend of up to $2,000 per year. The NCAA board of directors passed the legislation in October but suspended it in December after objections from many schools. The legislation remains under review.
Another Spurrier proposal this week — for only division games to count in the SEC East and West standings — went nowhere. The league’s coaches discussed it among themselves, but did not forward it to the athletic directors for consideration.
“I think I was moved when everyone said, you know, ‘How can you play a game in your conference that doesn’t count?’” said LSU coach Les Miles, initially a supporter of Spurrier’s proposal.
Equestrian championship?
Georgia supports a bylaw change, which the SEC presidents will consider Friday, that would create a conference championship in equestrian. Georgia, Auburn, South Carolina and league newcomer Texas A&M have equestrian teams.
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