The Clemson Tigers and Georgia Bulldogs have canceled their future four-game, home-and-home football series, according to a report from the Athens Banner-Herald.
The two programs were slated to open the series at Memorial Stadium in Clemson on September 15, 2029, followed by a matchup at Dooley Field at Sanford Stadium in Athens on August 31, 2030. Additional games were scheduled for September 4, 2032, in Athens and September 3, 2033, in Clemson.
Per the Banner-Herald, the schools “mutually agreed to cancel” all four contests, as outlined in a termination document signed on March 12 by Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks and Clemson athletic director Graham Neff. The document noted that “the parties have mutually agreed to terminate the Contracts and all of the provisions of those contracts, including payment requirements.”
Records from the original agreements indicated liquidated damages ranging from $1 million per game for cancellations made 24 months or more in advance to $1.5 million for cancellations within 12 months of the scheduled date.
Clemson and Georgia finalized the contracts for the series in 2018 and 2019. Since then, both the ACC and SEC have shifted to nine-game conference schedules, prompting each school to reevaluate and adjust its future nonconference lineup.
For Clemson, that includes a newly signed 12-game home-and-home series with Notre Dame, in addition to its annual rivalry game against South Carolina and an eight-game ACC slate.
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Having one P4 vs P4 for example Georgia-Georgia Tech & South Carolina-Clemson is excellent enough for regular season.
I am confident Georgia-Clemson will meet in CFP one of these days in future.
USC would make an excellent P4 opponent for Georgia next year 2027 & 2029.
With 9 SEC games and an annual game vs GaTech, UGa very likely won't play any other OapC HaH series. I expect them to cancel the OSU series too.
Richard I fully agree with you & Georgia will be excellent with only P4 OOC opponent of cross state rival Georgia Tech.
Sure would be nice to see UGA and ND play another home and home as a replacement for a couple of these games.
I thought it was odd when Clemson signed for a yearly series with Notre Dame because that meant no longer playing Georgia and other similar OOC games. Playing Notre Dame is good but you’d think they wanna rotate Georgia and other similar schools in there.
Georgia already plays 2 non-SEC cushion games per year (e.g. TN State, WKU). They don't need a third.
Gotta love paying hundreds of dollars or if you're a season ticket holder,maybe thousands to watch 3 marshmallows plus the SEC/ACC marshmallows. I have seen tougher schedules in Pop Warner these days.
Exactly, I thought the expansion of the CFP would allow teams to play these games more freely as they would count to strength of schedule and could suffer loss or two to make the playoff. The exact opposite is happening. Also anyone else notice that the upper deck of Death Valley was 3/4 full against UNC. Expect more this to happen when Citadel replaces Georgia on the schedule. Sad all around for season ticket holders and college football in general.
Jinzo: GaTech in a rivalry game is a marshmallow now?!?
Roger: Citadel isn't replacing UGa on Clemson's schedule. Really, ND is. So Clemson will still face SCarolina and ND every year (or close to it).
You aren't going to find many college teams playing two P4 non-conference opponents like Notre Dame and South Carolina (in a rivalry game) every season, and you certainly aren't going to find any tougher schedules in Pop Warner.
I agree with the comment about how close the Clemson and Georgia campuses are to each other, and I wish they could have saved the series, but unless Clemson was not going to not play Notre Dame in those seasons, you knew this series was going to come off the books once the ACC went to the 9-game conference schedule.
I'm assuming Notre Dame really wanted the annual match-up given their increasing difficulty in scheduling non-conference opponents, and Clemson decided it was worth it to lock into that series even if it meant losing the Georgia games (or they knew they Georgia was likely to cancel them anyway).
I'm critical of most of these non-conference cancellations, but I have a hard time being too negative towards Clemson this one given they have historically scheduled aggressively and they are still committed to play 11 P4 teams every season through 2038.
hopefully this means the Georgia/Ohio State series stays on the books.
Why did my comment get removed?
I believe the link was too long and the system flagged it as spam.
"USC would make an excellent P4 opponent for Georgia next year 2027 & 2029."
USC just ended a century old rivalry because playing Notre Dame in addition to their Big 10 schedule was too tough. It's highly unlikely that they would want to play Georgia.
On second thought I agree with you Dave.
Agree here, I was going to say the same. USC likes its OOC cupcake games too.
Cupcake games are excellent
Georgia and Clemson have played 66 times in their history.
The two campuses are about the same distance as the distance between Athens and Georgia Tech's campus in Atlanta.
Georgia has played Clemson more than they've played Arkansas, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, and Tennessee.
It's a huge game for fans of the two teams with they meet.
On the other hand, Georgia and USC have played three times in their history and none since 1960.
Their campuses are separated by over 2,250 miles.
There is literally no history or connection between the two schools.
If Georgia is playing anybody, it should be Clemson. Not some random West Coast team.
I am telling you many times SEC! SEC! SEC!
As a Georgia Bulldogs fan, I care abbot conference games for example: South Carolina, Florida & Auburn & only ACC team I care about for Georgia is cross state rival Georgia Tech & I am excellent with South Carolina & Notre Dame that they are Clemson big opponents outside ACC.
I am in zero hurry for Georgia-Clemson to meet again in future & please SEC! SEC! SEC! respect my comments.
So you really want more Georgia-Arkansas and Georgia-Missouri instead of Georgia-Clemson?
Georgia has only played 6 SEC teams more than they have played Clemson. They have played Clemson more than twice as many times as they have played 6 SEC teams.
So, you're not a Georgia fan.
Georgia fans care about playing Clemson. They certainly don't care about playing Southern Cal, as you suggested.
Big disadvantage I have with Georgia-Clemson is ACC referees officiating at Georgia campus stadium & SEC referees officiating at Clemson campus stadium.
Main reason why I am a fan of conference games pardon me is you have Georgia-South Carolina with SEC referees, Syracuse-Florida State with ACC referees, Michigan-Oregon with Big Ten referees & Oklahoma State State-Arizona with Big 12 referees.
Hey Dan you do know that during the Notre dame Michigan series that part of the deal was games at ND had big ten officials and game at Michigan had big east officials. This is nothing new.
Illininoles97, I do not mind a few times in P4 Vs P4 games when they have visiting referees for example Michigan at Alabama with Big Ten referees at Bryant-Denny Stadium overall I prefer regular conference referees at conference games.
So Dan that has 43 favorite teams, you want a home and home with Michigan and Alabama? In the past you said you want all neutral site games because it’s “to violent” and a bunch of other dumb things you have said! Pick and lane and stay in it. I wish more people would call you out for being such a good that talks out both sides your rear
Oh great we get to watch another cream puff non conference game so we can watch another boring conference game like Vandy vs Arkansas
Neither of which are teams cancelling a series in this article. In the case of UGa, it means more frequent conference games vs Bama/Tennessee/LSU/Texas/A&M/OU besides rivals UF and Auburn.
Conferences games are easier for conferences & networks to select unlike first three weeks when regular season begins.
Ok then, those great Georgia mizzu games. How about those can’t miss Georgia vs Kentucky or vandy games. Yeah those are so much better than playing a top notch non conference game.