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For the first time, future of Georgia-Florida rivalry feels like it won't be in Jacksonville

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For the first time, future of Georgia-Florida rivalry feels like it won't be in Jacksonville

Welcome to Good Day, UGA, your one-stop shop for Georgia football news and takes. Check us out every weekday morning for everything you need to know about Georgia football, recruiting, basketball and more. Change might be coming to Georgia-Florida rivalry given current talking points Georgia coach Kirby Smart has

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Hamdawg

I don't see how one extra "recruiting weekend" every other year will make much of a difference...we get way more national recruiting exposure as one of only two major neutral site games...something else is going on here.

CTBigDawg

IMHO what they should be proposing is treating the WLOCP as a true home game and allow each team the opportunity to host recruits the year they are the home team. That way everyone wins, those who want to continue tradition and those who want to discontinue tradition.

kirkhilles

https://forum.dawgnation.com/discussion/comment/261263#Comment_261263

National exposure doesn't sign recruits. You build your classes by getting them on campus and watching the games. That's like getting someone to the dealership: it's where the sale is made.

kirkhilles

" ..but there are a lot of other elements that go into the decision."

Uh huh. Let me correct that for you:

"...but there are a lot of $$$$ that go into the decision."

Since it can't be called the "World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party" anymore and isn't really something you want to talk about, there's no advantage for Georgia to keep it in Jacksonville. Swapping between Jax and Atl would be an improvement and getting some visits in Athens would be bigger.

Look, the players have unanimously stated they want a home/home, so who are we to question that. We as fans get to watch games for many decades, but these players only get a few changes to play key games like this. Some might only get a chance to play at "home" once. Give them what they want.

ShoottheHooch

A team with the talent to compete for a NC to the SEC championship game and beyond rather than to the middle of October is what has turned UGA football into a money making machine! If Kirby wants the game in Athens every other year to help recruiting, give Kirby what he wants! I'll gladly trade a trip to a playoff destination over a trip to Jacksonville, FL!

HootiePepper

I am among the fans that support the change for recruiting value. While I am in my 50's and respect tradition, I see an opportunity for new exciting traditions to emerge.

rhbatch

I have mixed feelings about "TWLOCP" in Jacksonville. To paraphrase a great UGA alumni, I was born a Southerner (Jacksonville in December, 1942 to two Georgia parents) but by the Grace of God, became a Bulldog at 18 months old when we moved to Peach County Georgia. My parents lived in an apartment near the Gator Bowl and my mother told me about the wild Saturday late afternoons and evenings following the GA - FL games. She said no one left their cars parked on the streets because "accidents were very common" by especially the losing team's fans (in those days, mostly gators). I heard those stories each year when we played the gators and, sentimentally, hate to see the tradition broken. However, if Kirby thinks home and home will help us win against florida, lets move it to home and home.

SmartsTheMan

I don't want to see the game leave Jacksonville. The neutral site makes it like no other game in the SEC. It's like a bowl game during the season.

It's going to be a shame to lose it. I would encourage every Georgia or Florida fan to make that trip at least one time before it ends.

On the other hand, I now understand Smart's reasoning and completely agree. Georgia simply can't afford to lose even one recruiting day, even if it is only day every other year.

Nick Saban is constantly inventing new ways around the rules, and he always gets away with it. Over-signing, Bogus Medical Red-shirts, Analysts taking an illegal "hands on" approach to their job. How many times have we heard about Performance Enhancing Drugs and the Alabama program? The list goes on and on.

There is no such thing as fair play in big time college football. Smart and Georgia can't afford to give an inch much less one full recruiting day every other year. It's time to say goodbye to the greatest neutral site game in college football...

GeoffDawg

I would hate to lose it, it's one of the great traditions of college football so I'd hope there would be some creative solutions proposed for the concerns. However, to be the best, I also think we have to be willing to make painful decisions and be visionary and strategic about the future.

I'd be disappointed but would understand the move.

Hamdawg

The only way I would support this is if the stated reason was more scheduling flexibility and better out of conference schedules in the future (which we are already doing and also recruiting at a high level). This game is more important to the UGA brand than one weekend every other year. As stated in the article, we are already recruiting better than Florida and recruiting well enough to win a NC...something else is at play here.
Bottom line is that the Coaching needs to catch up with the talent. No more fake punts, fake FGs, running QB experiments, and SEC West road flops.

DallasDawg

OK. So let's say we sign the #1 recruiting class in the country with the game played in JAX (which we have already done). So will moving it to home-and-home mean we're going to get the #1 class every year now? I think not. The game is probably gone, and I think that's a shame. I don't think that winning a NC and playing one game a year in Jacksonville are mutually exclusive, but that seems to be the sentiment. So farewell Jacksonville -- unless your city fathers are willing to basically pay off the national debt to keep the game.

10DAWG

One of the greatest traditions in college football, why in the hell would you screw with it ???

latemodelray

Just another tradition dies that takes away the uniqueness that is college football.

I for one will be sorry to see it go.

What next remove the hedges from Athens to allow a few new rows of seats?