The Georgia Bulldogs have added the UMass Minutemen to their 2018 football schedule, both schools announced today.
Georgia will host UMass at Sanford Stadium in Athens on Nov. 17, 2018. The game will be the first-ever meeting between the two schools on the gridiron.
Per Matt Vautor of the Daily Hampshire Gazette, Georgia will pay UMass a $1.5 million guarantee for the game.
The Bulldogs now have two non-conference games set for their 2018 schedule. Georgia is also scheduled to host in-state rival Georgia Tech to close out the regular season on Nov. 24.
In SEC play in 2018, Georgia is slated to host Auburn, Florida (at Jacksonville), Tennessee, and Vanderbilt and travel to Kentucky, LSU, Missouri, and South Carolina.
“I am pleased we have scheduled a 2018 football game ‘between the hedges’ at Georgia,” UMass Director of Athletics Ryan Bamford said. “It will be a great experience for members of our football program and will provide us increased visibility against an SEC opponent in an area of the country where Coach (Mark) Whipple and his staff are recruiting prospective student-athletes. In addition, we are also thrilled to schedule a home-and-home basketball series with the Bulldogs in future years.”
UMass played their final season as a football-only member of the MAC in 2015. The Minutemen are now an FBS Independent for the foreseeable future until they find a new conference home.
As part of the agreement announced today, Georgia and UMass will play a home-and-home series in basketball in Amherst in 2017-18 and in Athens in 2018-19.
Football Schedules