Tuesday it was reported by Auburn Undercover/247 Sports that the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry would likely be moving dates starting in 2020.
Now, University of Georgia president Jere Morehead has confirmed this to be true. Starting in 2020, the annual rivalry game will be played earlier in the season, swapping places with the late-September/early-October Georgia-Tennessee game.
This is a significant change, given that the Georgia-Auburn series has been played in November since 1937 aside from the 2017 SEC Championship game.
Auburn’s problem began when the SEC expanded to 14 teams, adding Missouri and Texas A&M in 2012. As a bridge plan for two years in 2012 and 2013, Auburn hosted Georgia in back-to-back years. Since then, the Tigers have been getting the Crimson Tide and the Bulldogs either at home or on the road in the same year and in the same month.
This change will not affect the Bulldogs’ annual schedule as would a change in hosts like the 2012-13 shift. Instead of giving Georgia back-to-back home games against the Tigers, the SEC will move the game up.
