Florida-Georgia matchup to remain in Jacksonville ... for now

Florida-Georgia is not going anywhere — at least through 2025.

The two schools announced Wednesday that they have exercised the contract option to keep the annual gridiron battle in Jacksonville for the 2024 and 2025 seasons. 

Speculation had ensued in recent weeks that, given the likelihood of impending renovations to TIAA Bank Field — where the contest is currently played — the bordering-state rivals could get a jumpstart on shifting the contest to a home-and-home basis. 

Renovations are still likely to occur during the 2026 and 2027 seasons, which could force the universities to host one matchup each at their campuses. 

Regarding the future of the game past 2025, it appears that the schools have slightly different outlooks. 

Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin said Wednesday, “The City of Jacksonville has been an historic host for one of the great rivalry games in all of college football. We are excited to have the game in Jacksonville for another two seasons.” 

Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks, though, said, “We are pleased with the decision to exercise the option that will keep the game in Jacksonville for 2024 and 2025. We look forward to discussions that I’m sure will continue over the next couple years exploring all the options for 2026 and beyond.”

The difference in those two statements indicates that while Florida may view keeping the game in Jacksonville as the preferred route, Georgia is clearly open to exploring the home-and-home option. 

Florida-Georgia was first played in Jacksonville in 1933, with the 1994 and 1995 editions being on the schools’ respective campuses while then-Jacksonville Municipal Stadium was undergoing renovations. 

As noted by Seth Emerson of The Athletic, with Lenny Curry on the way out as mayor of Jacksonville and Donna Deegan on the way in — she begins her first term in July — the politics surrounding this issue will be worthy of monitoring. 

Along with Texas-Oklahoma and Army-Navy, to name a couple, Florida-Georgia is part of a bedrock college football tradition, that being neutral-site rivalry showdowns. Since Georgia head coach Kirby Smart entered the fray, the Bulldogs are 5-2 against the Gators. 

That recent lopsided nature, however, does not distract from the fact that the contest always receives the 3:30 p.m. time slot on CBS, denoting it the SEC’s Game of the Week. Whether Florida can return to the ranks of the elite under second-year head coach Billy Napier is a difficult question to answer, but if Napier rights the ship in Gainesville, Fla., then this rivalry will be an even larger part of the national storyline once late October rolls around.

Where the rivalry is played past 2025, though, remains to be seen. And like usual, it seems that Florida and Georgia are in disagreement.