Florida State-Georgia series cancellation is ominous sign for future of college football
What do you do college football particular, and for some followers, superior to the NFL, is that huge video games imply one thing.
The shorter common season, smaller playoff subject relative to the scale of the game, historic rivalries and the group of groups into (previously) regional conferences created a novel dynamic. Non-conference video games between historic applications are must-see TV, not simply because of the stakes, however as a result of fan bases and conferences depend on these outcomes.
And the unlucky actuality of how the game is organized within the fashionable period is that these huge non-conference video games are going to turn into much less and fewer frequent. Which is exactly the other of what most college football followers need.
The 12-team College Football Playoff you’ve got already created incentives for simpler schedules. Notre Dame being maybe the very best instance. The Irish have, traditionally, by no means shied away from robust video games, regardless of being an unbiased program. But a brand new association with the College Football Playoff committee has assured them a spot within the event transferring ahead ought to they end within the high 12.
Notre Dame head football coach Marcus Freeman adjusts his radio on the sideline in the course of the sport in opposition to Boise State at Notre Dame Stadium on Oct. 4, 2025. (Michael Caterina/Imagn Images)
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Their schedule in 2026 displays that actuality: Wisconsin at Lambeau Field, Rice, Michigan State, at Purdue, at North Carolina, Stanford, at BYU, Navy, Miami, Boston College, SMU, at Syracuse. That’s a schedule set as much as win 10-11 video games and be within the high 12 come December.
Compare it to Texas. The Longhorns have Texas State, Ohio State, UTSA, at Tennessee, Oklahoma, Florida, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, at Missouri, at LSU, Arkansas, at Texas A&M. Then, they need to end that brutal, grueling schedule with a high quality season, a date within the SEC Championship Game in opposition to a staff like Georgia or Alabama. Head coach Steve Sarkisian was so annoyed at lacking the 2025-26 playoff subject at 9-3 that he primarily threatened to cease scheduling high non-conference groups like Ohio State transferring ahead.
Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart stands on the sideline in the course of the first quarter in opposition to the Tennessee Volunteers at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Ga., on Nov. 16, 2024. (Brett Davis/Imagn Images)
Then, simply this month, the American Football Coaches Association came out in favor of increasing the sphere to 24, additional limiting the inducement to schedule robust video games. Why put your self in danger of shedding that fourth sport when a 3-0 non-conference run and 6-3 in-conference document within the Big Ten or SEC would probably be sufficient to achieve the sphere?
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That brings us to a different current sign that college football is transferring within the improper route: the cancellation of a scheduled home-and-home series between Georgia and the Florida State Seminoles.
In a current assertion, the groups introduced that they’d “mutually agreed” to take the 2027 and 2028 video games off the calendar. With hopes of transferring to a mutual web site.
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“As we considered the effects of evolving scheduling mandates within both the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Southeastern Conference, we have mutually agreed that it is in the best interest of both schools to cancel our home-and-home series scheduled for 2027 and 2028,” stated FSU Vice President and Director of Athletics Michael Alford. “We are now discussing playing a future neutral-site contest, and we are optimistic we will get that done. Importantly, this change will not reduce the total home games on our schedule moving forward.”
Well, there you’ve got it. Instead of taking part in big video games in opposition to big-name groups from different conferences, on campus, in entrance of a scholar part and raucous residence crowds, new “schedule mandates” are influencing groups to maneuver video games to impartial websites. Instead of “The Doak” or “Between the hedges,” ought to the series be rescheduled, it will probably be one more sport performed at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The Florida State Seminoles run onto the sphere with fireworks earlier than their sport in opposition to the Boston College Eagles at Doak Campbell Stadium on Bobby Bowden Field in Tallahassee, Fla., on Sept. 24, 2022. (Don Juan Moore/Getty Images)
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These new schedule mandates, taking part in 9 convention video games like groups within the Big Ten or the previous Pac-12 did for years, in addition to the expanded playoff, now imply that faculties are wanting for methods to attenuate their draw back. Instead of prioritizing the upside and offering a greater and extra significant expertise for followers.
It’s been that method for fairly a while, sadly. But this new period of tremendous conferences and bigger postseason tournaments it is solely making it worse. Most followers would nearly definitely favor to play these huge video games in a home-home format, even when it means an additional loss. Most faculties now do not appear to care.
