ATHENS – The Georgia Bulldogs – and every other fan base in the SEC – will finally find out Wednesday night what their 2024 football schedule is going to look like.
The conference voted two weeks ago at the SEC Spring Meetings in Destin to keep an eight-game schedule for the first year that Oklahoma and Texas will be members of an expanded 16-team league. On Wednesday night, the conference will unveil exactly how that shook out in a special prime-time, schedule-reveal show that will air at 7 p.m. on SEC Network.
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey has insisted that those schedules remain a closely guarded secret until they’re revealed. But there are a few clues for every team, the Bulldogs included.
For instance, Georgia definitely is keeping its two biggest rivals on the schedule, Florida and Auburn. And the Florida game will remain in Jacksonville and likely will continue to be played around Halloween, as per the schools’ contractual agreement with the city.
The Florida game is one of five the Bulldogs’ have on the slate for 2024. The others include Clemson in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium (Aug. 31), Tennessee Tech in Athens (Sept. 7), Massachusetts at Sanford Stadium (Nov. 23) and at Georgia Tech (Nov. 30).
The rest of the schedule is mostly guesswork and somewhat dependent on what happens with the other teams. It’s unknown whether the SEC will try to wrap up return games from its last expansion that added Missouri and Texas A&M 11 years ago. If so, that will account for several opponents for Georgia.
The biggest unknown for the Bulldogs is who they might add that they haven’t played. For example, Georgia was set to finally play Texas A&M in College Station in 2024 after not playing there since the Aggies joined the league for the 2012 season. They met in Athens in 2019 and need to play at Kyle Field to close out that home-and-home trade. So the “at-the-Aggies” is a good bet to be on UGA’s slate.
Meanwhile, Georgia was supposed to travel to Norman, Oklahoma, to meet the Sooners in 2023 in a home-and-home, non-conference arrangement made several years ago. The SEC made the schools void that contract – which would have brought the Sooners to Athens in 2031 – after Oklahoma joined the league.
Similarly, Georgia had arranged a home-and-home with new conference member Texas that was supposed to take place in 2028 and 2029. If the new non-divisional format holds, the teams definitely will play twice from 2024-28.
Whatever the case, everybody will find out Wednesday night. Then it might all get torn up and done again if the SEC decides to switch to a nine-game conference schedule in 2025. Indications are that that remains Sankey’s preferred model. He has tended to get what he wants in recent years.
Following is a best-guess for Georgia in 2024:
Aug. 31 – vs. Clemson in Atlanta (under contract)
Sept. 7 – Tennessee Tech in Athens (under contract)
Sept. 14 – at South Carolina (return game)
Sept. 21 – Auburn in Athens (return game)
Sept. 28 – Bye
Oct. 5 – at Texas A&M (new)
Oct. 12 – Vanderbilt in Athens (return game)
Oct. 19 – at Missouri (return game)
Oct. 26 – Bye
Nov. 2 – vs. Florida in Jacksonville (under contract)
Nov. 9 – vs. LSU in Athens (new)
Nov. 16 – at Kentucky (return game)
Nov. 23 – Massachusetts in Athens (under contract)
Nov. 30 – at Georgia Tech (under contract)
