Greg McGarity, the man who hired Kirby Smart at Georgia and then watched him become one of the great coaches in college football, understands why he wants to move the historic, euphoric Georgia-Florida game out of Jacksonville.
McGarity just doesn’t agree with it.
Especially when Florida and Georgia each net about $3.5 million per year more for playing the game in Jacksonville every year than they would make by playing on their home campus every other year.
“Kirby and I had these discussions years ago about his desire [to move the game] and you can’t argue against his logic,” McGarity, the former Georgia athletic director, told me Tuesday. “I mean, he has a valid point — from his perspective. What he says is true from his standpoint as a football coach. However, when you’re in the chair of athletic director and you’re having to make decisions from a financial standpoint as well as a historical standpoint, you have to take a more holistic view and do what’s best for the entire institution. As the AD, I always viewed playing the [Georgia-Florida] game in Jacksonville as a positive for our program.”
After my conversation with McGarity, I’ve never felt more adamant that the storied game between the Bulldogs and the Gators should stay in Jacksonville. Nobody on the planet knows all sides of this rivalry like McGarity, a former Georgia tennis player and tennis coach who spent 18 years as the senior associate athletic director (second in command) at Florida before spending 10 years as the athletic director at Georgia. He is now the CEO of the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, where part of his job is to organize and orchestrate the Georgia-Florida game.
As Florida and Georgia get ready to renew their annual rivalry Saturday, the two schools released a nebulous joint statement earlier this week addressing the future of the game when the current contract with Jacksonville expires in 2023.
“Typically both schools begin conversations regarding future games in the series as the last contracted game nears,” the statement said. “We anticipate following that timeline. When those discussions take place, we will consider a multitude of factors, including tradition, finances, future SEC scheduling models with the addition of Texas and Oklahoma, and what is best for both schools’ football programs overall.”
In other words, the statement really served no substantial purpose except to create a flurry of speculation that the two schools are considering moving the game that has been played in Jacksonville for nearly 100 years (since 1933).
This all stems from NCAA rules that forbid schools from hosting recruits at neutral sites. Consequently, Smart’s repeated stance is that Georgia’s recruiting is being damaged because its most attractive and hyped game of the year (against Florida) is played at a neutral site 350 miles away from Athens, making it impossible for the Bulldogs to host a gala on-campus recruiting weekend for the top prospects in the country.
Of course, Smart’s recruiting is doing just fine when you consider the Dawgs just won their first national title in nearly half-a-century and are currently ranked No. 1 in the country. According to 247Sports.com, Georgia’s last five recruiting classes have been ranked 1, 2, 1, 4 and 3.
Doesn’t matter. Smart wants even more and even better recruits and he seems willing to sacrifice one of the most storied traditions in college football just to get them.
“I firmly believe that we’ll be able to sign better players by having it as a home-and-home because we’ll have more opportunities to get them to campus,” Smart said.
Florida’s first-year coach Billy Napier doesn’t necessarily disagree with Smart’s assessment.
“There is no question that game day and in particular these types of games create recruiting opportunities,” he said. “So this type of environment, this experience for a player, can have a significant impact on a player’s decision. So I mean, I completely understand what Kirby is saying. Every other year he’s missing out on what he knows will be a fantastic venue and game day experience.”
Personally, I don’t like where this is headed. You have one ultra-powerful football coach in Smart, who wants to move the game and wields a lot of clout with Georgia fans because he just won a national championship. And you have another football coach in Napier, who’s been given everything he wants by Florida’s administration and is certainly not objecting to the game being moved as well.
I hate it when football coaches and/or athletic directors who are at a school for a relatively short amount of time have the ability to change 100 years of history based upon their short-sighted whims and wants.
Do we have to trash every tradition we have in college football in the name of conference realignment, media rights deals, NIL collectives, the transfer portal and, now, recruiting weekends?
Can’t they leave us longtime college football fans with just a crumb of legacy?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, moving the Georgia-Florida game out of Jacksonville would be like moving The Masters out of Augusta National. Because this game has been played in Jacksonville for the last 89 years, it has had several books written about it and even has its own Hall of Fame. It’s one of only three traditional neutral-site rivalries in college football with the other two being Army-Navy and Oklahoma-Texas.
“I’ve seen it from both sides,” McGarity says. “There is no question that it is a tradition like none other for Georgia fans. I think the tradition is actually more festive for Georgia fans than it is for Florida fans because what happens is this: The Friday before the game, it’s fall break [on campus] and there is migration to the beaches of South Georgia and North Florida for Georgia fans. They stay in Jekyll Island and Sea Island and all the way down to Ponte Vedra. It’s like a fall trip to the beach and week-long celebration for many Georgia fans.
“And in talking to players who get inducted into the game’s Hall of Fame, it really hits you how special this rivalry is to them. To hear them talk about it even after they’ve been removed for all these years, they remember everything about their experience of playing in this game — driving to the game over the Hart Bridge, seeing 40,000 Georgia fans on one side of the stadium and 40,000 Florida fans on the other side of the stadium, being engulfed in the atmosphere and aura of playing in a truly unique environment.”
McGarity pauses.
“If you move this to the campuses then it becomes just another home game.”
Please, Kirby Smart, don’t take this treasured game away from us.
Please, don’t take away the passion and pageantry, history and heritage, rivalry and revelry of one of the greatest sporting spectacles in the country.
Please, leave the Georgia-Florida game alone.
There’s too damn few traditions left in college football.
Email me at mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com. Hit me up on Twitter @BianchiWrites and listen to my Open Mike radio show every weekday from 6 to 9:30 a.m. on FM 96.9, AM 740 and HD 101.1-2
