Josh Brooks says Georgia’s call to keep the Florida rivalry at a neutral site came down to more than one Saturday in Athens.
With Georgia and Florida set to meet in Atlanta for the first time on Saturday, the Bulldogs’ athletic director explained Thursday on The Paul Finebaum Show why the series remained away from campus while Jacksonville’s stadium was being renovated. Brooks said the decision involved revenue, the competitive realities of playing in the SEC and a respect for the tradition that has long defined the matchup.
Finebaum mentioned “a lot of reports” that Kirby Smart would have preferred the game at Sanford Stadium and asked Brooks about that discussion.
“I think he obviously always loves to get as many home games at Sanford Stadium as possible,” Brooks said. “But I think when you look at it over a long-term stretch and you're trying to think about not just the revenue piece of it, but playing in a neutral site over the course of time gives you a better opportunity.
“Because, look, anytime you go on the road in the SEC, it's extremely difficult. And I've been in the Swamp before.”
Brooks also pointed to the return trip that would come with a true home-and-home setup. A home game against Florida would have meant Georgia going to Gainesville, and that tradeoff factored into the final call.
“So I think you weigh all that in and you want to be respectful to your coach,” he said.
The money side, Brooks said, goes beyond the gate. Playing at home brings costs a neutral site often does not, while host cities usually help shoulder part of the event.
“Not only the corporate sponsorship, but just the way these cities step up and subsidize really great opportunities for you,” he said.
Saturday’s game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium opens the two-year relocation of the rivalry. The teams will play in Tampa in 2027 before the series returns to Jacksonville in 2028 under an agreement announced in November 2024 that keeps the game there through 2031.
This isn’t the first time construction pushed the matchup away from Jacksonville. During the Gator Bowl rebuild for the NFL’s expansion Jaguars, Florida hosted in Gainesville in 1994 and Georgia hosted in Athens in 1995. Outside of those two games, every meeting since 1933 has been played in Jacksonville.
Georgia is listed as the home team Saturday, but the venue still keeps the series in neutral-site form. No.
3 Georgia enters at 6-1, 4-1 in the SEC, while No. 17 Florida is 5-2, 3-2.
Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC.
Brooks said the choice also carried a responsibility to preserve what Jacksonville has meant to the rivalry, and to honor the people who helped build that tradition, including Vince Dooley.
“There’s a lot of people that came before me, and I've had plenty of conversations with Coach Dooley when he was alive about this very topic,” Brooks said. “And I think you have to respect the tradition that is Jacksonville and what it's meant to so many people for so long.”
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