Recruits now allowed at Georgia-Florida game: What does it mean?

Few rivalry games in the Southeast mean more than the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. Interstate rivals Florida and Georgia have been facing off for nearly 100 years, save for a wartime interruption in the 1940s. And since 1933, the game has been played in Jacksonville in all but two instances.

More than five hours from Athens and a little over an hour from Gainesville, the location isn’t exactly “neutral.”

To offset some of that, neither program has been allowed to host recruits at the game, which would presumably be to the Gators’ advantage given the location and proximity to in-state recruits. That changed Wednesday morning, when On3’s DawgsHQ broke the news that the annual rivalry game will now allow each school to provide tickets to recruits; the number each program will be allotted isn’t yet known.

The practice isn’t unheard of, as Georgia and Clemson did it last year for their matchup in Charlotte, and Alabama and Miami did for a neutral site game last season. Texas and Oklahoma, two bitter interstate rivals, have been trading off which program gets to serve as the home team and can host recruits at their annual game in Dallas for years.

“The years of the Texas-Oklahoma games haven’t resulted in a big sway for high-end prospect necessarily after one game, but it’s given more recruiting juice for both programs over time,” On3 Senior National Recruiting Analyst Gerry Hamilton said. “When you’re competing for a lot of the same recruits, that helps. With Georgia-Florida, instead of having to verbalize the rivalry game to prospects and their families, they can now experience it.”

Both Hamilton and On3 Director of Recruiting Chad Simmons noted that the strings that come with it can mute any real advantage it has for one program or another. NCAA rules state that coaches are not allowed to interact with recruits at neutral site games, and that will be no different in Jacksonville.

“I think it’s a step in the right direction because the recruits will get to see the passion on each side and get a feel for the game day environment, but being a “neutral” site game will not have the same impact as it would if it was on a home-and-home schedule,” said Simmons, who has covered the Southeast for the better part of two decades.

Georgia, Florida haven’t been in lockstep on the future of the rivalry

Last month, Georgia coach Kirby Smart and former Florida quarterback Tim Tebow traded barbs on the SEC Network when the former Heisman Trophy winner chided Smart for wanting to move the game out of Jacksonville. Smart took some exception to that, noting that he feels it puts his program at a disadvantage recruiting against other SEC schools who play their rivalry games on campus.

“When Auburn plays Alabama, guess where the recruits are? They are at Auburn,” Smart said. “When LSU and Alabama play, that’s where the biggest recruits go. … (So) it’s an opportunity for us to bring these kids that fly in from all over the country, what game do they want to see Georgia play? They’d like to see Georgia play Florida, they can’t do that. It’s very important. Recruiting is very important.”

The change to allow prospects to receive free tickets is a compromise of sorts, but ultimately Simmons feels the impact won’t be that substantial given the restrictions that come along with it.

“It’s a good change, but it’s not the same as Florida or Georgia having recruits on their own campus for a game of this magnitude,” he added. “You see other rivalries where these schools can get kids on their campus in front of a huge crowd for what’s often one of the biggest games of the year And especially when you’re competing against that school for recruits often, it can be significant.

… For this, recruits will get in the game for free and be able to feel the atmosphere, but that’s kind of where it stops in settings like this.”

New Florida head coach Billy Napier has said he wants to experience it for the first time in Jacksonville this fall before coming to any conclusions about where he stands on the issue. Previous coach Dan Mullen was understand of Smart’s perspective on recruiting, but didn’t advocate for any changes. Northeast Florida has been a fertile recruiting ground in recent memory for the Gators, including the 2023 cycle. Giving that up, as well as changing the location of a game played for 90 years in the same city, is a big ask.

Future of the game remains in doubt

With Smart’s strong feelings on either playing the game at campus sites — or at the least trading off each year between Jacksonville and Atlanta, what the future holds for the matchup is in question. The rivalry game is contracted to be played in Jacksonville through 2023 and is up for renegotiation of a possible extension through 2025.

Previous Georgia coaches, including Mark Richt, have had their pleas to move the game fall on deaf ears. Smart, who just signed a 10-year, $112.5 million contract, isn’t going anywhere and doesn’t appear to be backing down.

“It would be like me saying in June there are four weekends you can have prospects on campus, but at Georgia you can only have three,” he said on a Jacksonville radio appearance. “That’s what it’s like, I’m self-sanctioning myself an opportunity to have the best prospect in the country, fly into Atlanta and drive over every other year to see Georgia play Florida.

… I don’t know that people understand the value of that, they don’t respect it. Especially people in Jacksonville.”