The Georgia versus Tennessee series will be discontinued for the first time since 1992 thanks to the new SEC football schedule
The SEC was faced with an impossible task. Trying to maintain every historic rivalry in the conference while keeping balanced schedule is simply not possible.
The Georgia Bulldogs are losing one of the their annual rivals, the Tennessee Volunteers. Georgia and Tennessee won't meet for the first time since 1992 as a result. The Georgia-Tennessee rivalry will continue to be played, but the schools will play just twice from 2026-2029.
The Georgia-Tennessee series is coming off one of the best games in the 55-game rivalry history. Georgia won a dramatic overtime game 44-41 on the road to earn the Dawgs' ninth consecutive win in the series.
Instead of playing Tennessee annually, the Bulldogs will play South Carolina. Georgia's other two annual SEC opponents are Florida and Auburn, who were pretty much locks for the Bulldogs to continue their historic rivalries with.
USATODAY's Blake Toppmeyer and John Adams are split on if it is a big deal that the Georgia-Tennessee series won't be played annually.
"Big deal," Adams wrote. "These are bordering states. They recruit many of the same players. The campuses are separated by fewer than 250 miles. This series became an annual affair in 1992 with the dawn of divisional play. It delivers great games."
Georgia and Tennessee continued to meet annually after the SEC expanded to 16 teams and dissolved divisions. Georgia and Tennessee frequently battled for SEC East supremacy in the past, but will take a break in the series.
"Not a big deal," Toppmeyer wrote. "This is a good matchup. It's not a heated rivalry. Each team has multiple more important rivals."
We have to agree that both teams have more important rivals. We rank the Georgia-Tennessee rivalry as the Bulldogs' fourth-biggest rivalry (ahead of the South Carolina rivalry). The Georgia-Tennessee rivalry does not have as many historic matchups as Tennessee-Vanderbilt, Tennessee-Kentucky or Tennessee-Alabama. The Volunteers have to feel fortunate they landed both Vanderbilt and Kentucky as annual SEC opponents instead of Georgia and/or Florida.
Georgia football's annual SEC rivals
- Florida Gators
- Auburn Tigers
- South Carolina Gamecocks
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This article originally appeared on UGA Wire: Georgia-Tennessee rivalry snubbed as part of SEC's nine-game schedule
Category: General Sports
