AD Josh Brooks on status of Georgia football home-and-home with Clemson
· Yahoo Sports
GREENSBORO — Georgia football and Florida State are looking at a range of cities to play a neutral site game in 2028 after cancelling their home-and-home series.
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What about the Georgia-Clemson games scheduled for 2029 in Death Valley and 2030 in Athens?
“We’re in talks right now,” Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks said after an athletic board meeting on Friday May 22 at the Ritz-Carlton Reynolds about conversations with Clemson athletic director Graham Neff. “I’ve got to get through some other stuff first, but Graham and I have been in talks and we’ll see how that evolves over time, but right now my primary focus is on the Florida State game and where that game is going to be played.”
Georgia hasn’t played at Clemson since 2013 and the Tigers last played in Athens in 2014.
Brooks said the future games with Clemson could move to a neutral site.
“Possibly,” he said. “Everything’s on the table right now with that.”
A neutral site game is more lucrative for Georgia.
Georgia projects $8.5 million in ticket revenue for the neutral site game this season against Florida in Atlanta compared to $5.7 million for a home game against Auburn.
Georgia first played border rival Clemson in 1897. The schools announced the home-and-home games for 2029 and 2030 in 2018 after earlier scheduling a neutral site game in Atlanta that was played in 2024.
Georgia and Florida State have received “aggressive proposals,” from seven cites to host the game, Florida State athletic director Michael Alford.
On3 Brett McMurphy reported those are Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami, Nashville, New Orleans, Orlando and Tampa. New Orleans, where Georgia played in Sugar Bowls the last two seasons, is seen as less likely than others to land the game.
Georgia also has a home-and-home scheduled for 2030 and 2031 with Ohio State. For now.
Georgia has 10 Power 4 games “baked in every year,” Brooks said.
That’s the nine SEC games and Georgia Tech. The Florida game is scheduled to remain played at a neutral site through 2031 with it moving to Tampa in 2027 and returning to Jacksonville in 2028.
“The reality is when you go to nine conference games and Tech, adding that many games put us in a precarious situation with the number of home and homes we had scheduled,” Brooks said. “Instead of just eliminating those games all together, we’re trying to find a way to keep as many of those on the schedule and the simplest way to do that would be to move to a neutral site.”
Brooks made some waves on Sunday when he posted on social media that the NCAA should reevaluate the tennis championships being held in Orlando at the The USTA National Campus from 2028-2037 after Georgia completes two years hosting in 2027.
He said Thursday those championships "belong on college campuses. The energy, the vibe can’t be matched upon a neutral site.”
Brooks said neutral site football games and tennis is comparing "apples and oranges. ...When we talk about tennis in Orlando we're talking about a neutral site where there's not many there except from the families of the kids. We're talking about a couple hundred people watching a national championship tennis match at a neutral site with no energy."
He said games against Clemson in Charlotte and Oregon in Atlanta "those stadiums have been filled half and half. There's still juice, there's still energy. When we're talking about adding a ninth conference game and (Georgia) Tech is 10 (Power 4 opponents), if we go home and home and continue this, we have a situation where we have five home games."
Brooks this week said "that's not acceptable."
Georgia already cancelled home-and-home series with UCLA, Louisville and N.C. State.
“We have and we still continue to play more P4 opponents than the majority of schools in college athletics,” he said. “Now we have a tradition in Jacksonville that’s always going to be a hot topic, but it’s always been very successful and there’s always been a great showing and we’ve had a great showing there, especially the last 5,6,7 years.”
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Josh Brooks on Georgia football home-and-home series with Clemson