ATHENS -- Depending on how things shake out this Saturday, ESPN might’ve nabbed one of the best games of the season when it snagged Georgia-Kentucky on Monday for a nighttime kick on Oct. 7.
For the rest of this year, CBS still gets first dibs on television selections from the SEC. The network went with Alabama at Texas A&M as its 3:30 p.m. SEC national game of the week for Oct. 7. As a result, CBS executives will be praying that each team wins their respective games this Saturday, when Bama (3-1, 1-0 SEC) travels to Mississippi State and the Aggies (3-1, 1-0) visit Arkansas. Both were favored as of Monday.
In the meantime, the odds seem favorable for the No. 1-ranked Bulldogs (4-0, 1-0) and Kentucky (4-0, 1-0) to arrive at their Week 6 matchup still undefeated. Las Vegas sports books were posting Georgia as a 16.5- to 17.5-point favorite on the road against Auburn (3-1, 0-1) this weekend. Meanwhile, the Wildcats were posted as a rare favorite over No. 22 Florida in Lexington this Saturday. Early in the week at least, the Gators were getting 2.5 points at Kroger Field.
That’s the same Kentucky football program that once lost 31 games in a row to Florida. The Wildcats broke the curse in 2017 and now have won three out of five in the series, including the last two.
If both Kentucky and Georgia come out victorious this Saturday, ESPN will have a pair of Top 25 unbeatens in a rare under-the-lights at Sanford Stadium for Oct. 7.
Of course, CBS can’t go with the two-time, defending national champion Bulldogs every week. CBS already carried Georgia’s game against South Carolina on Sept. 16 and will, as always, televise Georgia-Florida from Jacksonville on Oct. 28 in its coveted 3:30 p.m. slot. CBS and all the networks certainly are keeping a close eye on Georgia-Tennessee in Knoxville on Nov. 18. If the season shakes out as expected, that game could decide which team represents the East in the SEC Championship Game in the last year of divisions.
As it stands now, Georgia fans are just happy just to have a second night game on tap for the season. The Bulldogs infamously did not play any night games at Sanford Stadium last year, much to the chagrin of their fans. If one counts the 6 p.m. kickoff against Tennessee-Martin in the season opener as a night game -- and Georgia does not in its official record -- then that’s three night kicks at home for the Bulldogs this season.
Georgia had only one night kickoff at home in 2021, two in 2020 and three in 2019. You have to go back to 2009 to find a season when the Bulldogs played more than three night games at home.
SEC’s agreement with CBS as its primary rights holder ends after this season. Next year, ESPN/ABC takes over as rights holder in a 10-year, $3 billion deal that was originally brokered in 2020. Since then, the league expanded to 16 teams by adding Texas and Oklahoma from the Big 12.
Kickoff times are expected to vary widely when that ESPN takes over and seeks to spread out the games over its family of networks, plus streaming.
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