Georgia’s window for a home night game is getting awfully small, and the Bulldogs may end up needing Missouri to do the heavy lifting.
The SEC already passed on one obvious chance when it slotted Georgia’s Week 5 home game against Vanderbilt into the early afternoon. That decision leaves Georgia with only three home games after the Commodores, and none of the remaining matchups jump off the page as a clear prime-time choice.
Auburn and Georgia Tech are still on the schedule in Athens, but both teams have started slowly. If that trend holds, it’s hard to imagine the SEC giving Georgia a night slot for either one. Missouri, though, looks like the best remaining path.
The Tigers are currently No. 19, and they could climb even higher before they arrive in Athens. But they’ve got a brutal stretch ahead: six games remain before the Georgia matchup, and five of those are against teams ranked now. If Missouri can navigate that run at 4-2 or better, it would likely still be ranked when it reaches Georgia - and that could be enough to finally push the Bulldogs into a home night game.
Georgia usually gets at least one home night game every season, so the odds are still there. But if the Bulldogs are reduced to hoping Missouri survives a gauntlet just to create a prime-time opening, that says plenty about how the schedule has shaken out.
And the missed opportunity may already be on the books.
Georgia’s game against Oklahoma this weekend looked like a strong candidate for a night slot, and next week’s Vanderbilt matchup may have been even better. Both Georgia and Vanderbilt are 3-0 and could still be undefeated by then. The storylines are there too, especially with former Georgia quarterback commit Jared Curtis set for his third career start in Athens after backing off his Georgia pledge days before signing day last year.
Still, that game is set for Noon or 12:45 p.m. EST, not prime time.
The Week 5 SEC slate doesn’t offer much help either. Georgia-Vanderbilt may be the best league game that week, but it still looks better than the two night games the conference handed out: McNeese State at LSU and Arkansas at Texas A&M. An FCS team going to LSU hardly looks like a night-game showcase, and Texas A&M probably doesn’t earn that kind of treatment after losing at home to Kentucky last week.
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