Georgia-Boise State game set; UGA cancels two games vs. Louisville (updated)
(Updated 8 p.m.)
Georgia’s football team will open next season in Atlanta against Boise State, which has emerged as an improbable powerhouse in recent years.
The Bulldogs and Broncos will play on Sept. 3 in the Georgia Dome in the fourth annual Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game, event organizers announced Friday. The game will be nationally televised in prime time on ABC or ESPN.
The Georgia-Boise State pairing marks the first time Atlanta’s season-opening event has included a team from inside the state or a team from outside the SEC/ACC footprint.
“It was too good an opportunity to turn down,” Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity said.
Arranging the matchup required machinations involving a number of schools. The final contractual obstacles were cleared mid-afternoon Friday, game president Gary Stokan said.
To clear room on its schedule, Georgia canceled a contract with Louisville that had called for games against the Cardinals in 2011 (in Athens) and 2012 (in Louisville). The Chick-fil-A Game will pay Louisville $600,000 to buy out the contract with Georgia, Stokan said. North Carolina agreed to replace UGA on Louisville’s schedule in 2011 and 2012.
Boise State also had to alter its schedule to accommodate the game. The Broncos had been scheduled to open next season at Ole Miss, but the Boise State-Ole Miss game will be pushed back to 2014, when it will be played in the Georgia Dome as one of two “Kickoff” games that year. Alabama will face a team yet to be determined in the other 2014 game, Stokan said. BYU agreed to replace Boise State on Ole Miss’ 2011 schedule.
ESPN was instrumental, Stokan said, in finding ways to make the pieces fit.
In the end, Georgia traded home-and-home games against Louisville -– a series that did not fit McGarity’s scheduling philosophy – for a high-profile, close-to-home matchup against Boise State.
“We felt like it was important that we be on the national stage,” McGarity said. “We felt it would bring a level of excitement that we really need in our program.”
McGarity noted that the arrangement leaves Georgia with six games in Athens in 2011 but will allow a seventh home game to be added in 2012. He said Georgia is close to a deal with a non-BCS opponent, which he would not name, to play in Athens on the 2012 date that the Bulldogs previously were scheduled to be in Louisville.
Louisville said in a news release that Georgia’s decision came “much to the dismay of the Cardinals.”
“While we certainly would have preferred to keep the series with Georgia, we are pleased to open up the season next year at North Carolina and look forward to hosting them … in 2012,” Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich said in the release. “We were thrilled when we secured a series with Georgia five years ago. We were approached to mutually agree to cancel this series, but we declined. Georgia exercised their option to cancel our series.”
The three previous Chick-fil-A Kickoff games matched an SEC team vs. an ACC team: Alabama vs. Clemson in 2008, Alabama vs. Virginia Tech in 2009 and LSU vs. North Carolina this year.
Boise State brings “a nationally known brand” to the game, Stokan said. The Broncos, ranked No. 3 in this week’s Associated Press poll, carried a 9-0 record and a 23-game winning streak into Friday night’s game against Fresno State.
The Georgia-Boise State game will change the dynamics of the 72,000-seat Georgia Dome for the event. While tickets were evenly distributed between the teams in the previous three Kickoff games, the planned allocation for this matchup is 7,500 tickets to Boise State and the rest of the available seats to Georgia, Stokan said.
Georgia will receive about $1.7 million and Boise State about $1.4 million for playing in the game, Stokan said.
As previously announced, N.C. State will face Tennessee and Auburn will play Clemson in two 2012 “Kickoff” games at the Dome.
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473 comments Add your comment
raymond
November 20th, 2010
12:04 pm
Thats just what we need, an a**whipping from boise to start the season.
The Big Bopper
November 20th, 2010
12:31 pm
Boise State 70, Georgia 10.
War Eagle
November 20th, 2010
12:38 pm
“Thats just what we need, an a**whipping from boise to start the season.”
And that’s just what you’ll get.
USCRULZ
November 20th, 2010
1:15 pm
Could we please get a real team to represent the SEC. Anyone but thUGA! Vandy would put up a better show.
Boise Fan
November 20th, 2010
1:33 pm
We are going to give the dawgs a beat down.This will be a tuneup for our new WAC schedule. We will run & throw all over the dawgs & our defense will be better than any thing the dawgs have seen this year. Our coaches know how to coach up our players because we only get 1 & 2 star recruits not the overrated 3 & 4 star recruits you guys get & most important Coach Chris Peterson will out coach Mark Richt.
GO BRONCOS
Columdawg
November 20th, 2010
1:35 pm
Wonder which sideline the Boise coach will be on?
JK
November 20th, 2010
1:46 pm
UGA is the best 5-6 team in football this year. Is that a positive? Absolutely not. Something is wrong with the state of UGA football. We need to go in a different direction. after we lose to BSU, the coaching search will begin. We look like Free Shoes University now…wonder why. Hmmmmmm…
Another Boise Fan
November 20th, 2010
1:47 pm
I’m disappointed with my school–They said we were going to play an elite program at the beginning of every year & Ga does not fit that discription.We play better competition in our own conference & now we open with a team in the bottom half of the SEC. We should be opening with someone like AL,LSU,AU,SC,FL — not ga.
2014 Chick-fil-A kickoff weekend to feature Ole Miss vs. Boise State and Bama vs. TBA
November 20th, 2010
1:57 pm
[...] aforementioned game, and Alabama versus an opponent to be announced on the following Saturday. Georgia-Boise State game set; UGA cancels two games vs. Louisville (updated) | UGA sports blog Originally Posted by HFS There is NO WAY UGA beats us this year. You can quote me [...]
Georgia Fans Eats Idiots Sandwiches
November 20th, 2010
1:58 pm
Georgia gets another beat down. SWEET!
Boston Dawg Eats Idiots Sandwiches
November 20th, 2010
2:02 pm
Over rated? Yep your flea bag mutts are over rated every year.
SteveW
November 20th, 2010
2:38 pm
You know you play a pathetic schedule when you move to the Mountain West like Boise, so you can play a better caliber of opponent. Just look at their MWC schedule next season:
Home: New Mexico, Wyoming, San Diego St., Air Force
Away: UNLV, Colorado St., TCU
That is hilarious. You couldn’t make this stuff up it’s so funny. And that’s an upgraded schedule? Give me a break. Boise, please play a consistent 8 or 9 games per year of quality opponents, so I can take you seriously, pleeeaaaase.
Oh, and the dreaded non-conference schedule outside of Ga.:
At Toledo (scary), at Fresno St., Nevada, and Tulsa – both at home.
Pathetic, pathetic, pathetic…
SteveW
November 20th, 2010
2:42 pm
Yeh, we can get this Boise coach, and end up like Colorado. When a Boise coach has to play a real schedule in a real Conference week in and week out, they end up like Haskins at Colorado – hopelessly overmatched, destroying the program and getting fired.
SteveW
November 20th, 2010
2:52 pm
Boise can beat any team in the country on any given Saturday – given. Appalachain St. can beat Michigan at the Big House also. But could they play say at South Carolina, Arkansas, At Miss. St., at Colorado coming off a bye week, UT, Vandy, At Kentucky, UF – and still have at Auburn and GT staring them in the face? No
Scenario – After the South Carolina game, they would be expecting a week off. With none forthcoming, they would get brutalized by Arkansas. Still expecting their week off, when finding out they would be playing in Starkville the next week, they would be thinking “surely you jest”. At halftime of the MSU game, the starters would refuse to come out for the 2nd half, leaving the 2nd and 3rd string to get pounded on.
Upon finding out that yet another game against a Big Conference school was coming up, and they had an off week, they would begin to whine and cry, picket the school offices, and declare that they were in the middle of the most brutal schedule in the history of the NCAA, and should immediately be declared BCS champions rather than get their nails dirty again. And upon finding out that the game was on the road, they would quit school, and enroll at USC or somewhere, where they could be perennial 3rd and 4th stringers, and run the scout team, rather than face that brutal scheduling.
If the above is not true – play a real schedule, quit ducking and running – sign the Nebraska deal like men even – but quit saying your worthy of a BCS Championship game – your not untill you play a real schedule!
UGA2011
November 20th, 2010
3:08 pm
Seems we have Saint Simmons back everybody! Check it out, even he knows Tech sucks so bad that he has to keep putting the Auburn score up. Wow, Saint Simmons…..you suck sir. Just because your team SUCKS!!!! really bad and is losing to Duke right now doesnt mean you should leave your team. LOSER
Cupcake Game
November 20th, 2010
3:45 pm
On no- we”re the cupcake.
ringleader
November 20th, 2010
3:50 pm
ESPN.com is reporting that Alabama will be paid 2 million, Ole Miss will be paid 2 million, Georgia will be paid 1.4 million and that the Chic will pay Louisville 600 thousand. Sure you can say Georgia did not buy out Louisville, but that is a lie. The Chic says Georgia will be paid 1.6 million, somebody lost 200 thousand there. GaDawgs…..you need to get your facts straight before you go correcting someone.
SportsFan31313
November 20th, 2010
3:50 pm
Boise State is over-rated and have been over-rated for the past years. They don’t play any “REAL” Contenders or a notable strength of schedule. The Dawgs will eat them alive…..
Boise Fan
November 20th, 2010
3:52 pm
Hey UGA2011,
Call me when you have talent equal to our talent. We will give you a beatdown like Florida does to you every year. I’m wondering for a team that has highly ranked recruiting classes every year whatever happens to that talent when it gets to Athens because rarely do I ever see it displayed on the field. Next year K. Moore starts his Heisman Campaign by throwing for 300yards & 5 TD’s against your sorry defensive backs. Our recruiting classes may not have the star power of yours but what we do better then you guys is that we recruit FOOTBALL PLAYERS. You guys should give it a try & maybe you guys will be able to move out of the bottom part of the SEC
truth
November 20th, 2010
4:09 pm
As a Tech fan/College Football fan, I hope UGA wipes the floor with the broncos of bsu
SEC Dawg fan in Boise
November 20th, 2010
4:23 pm
What will BSU’s excuse be this time? I am so tired of hearing how Zambranski threw the game or how he lost the game. They never give credit to the Ga defense or the Ga offense for racking up 48. BSU is 0-4 against the SEC!! Dawgs just don’t overlook them. Just don’t overlook them dawgs. they are a well coached team. They don’t make mistakes and they will be looking for revenge! Goooooo Dawgs sic’ em woof woof
boots
November 20th, 2010
4:57 pm
Next year should be much better than this year. I hope Green and/or Houston stay, and games like this will help. Realistically, AJ should go, but I can’t help but think he was a big reason this year started out so badly. Maybe karma will keep him in Athens for his final year. Meanwhile, the defense should be better, and the offense is starting to come along. More than anything, we just lost all the close ones this year, and you would think we get some breaks in 2011.
Good job to McG for getting this game scheduled. Beat the blue field starches.
get real
November 20th, 2010
5:17 pm
UGA 42 Boise State 31
Dawgtired
November 20th, 2010
5:24 pm
This game further indicates everything that is wrong with Boise being ranked so high. Notice they are all to willing to play the “big boys” when they have at least a month or more to prepare (see Oklahoma, TCU, Virginia Tech). Their only blemish is UGA’s 48-13 thumping. Put them in a tough conference with one week to prepare for any top ten foe and watch the results. Coach Peterson is an excellent coach and knows how to schedule to his advantage. I hope UGA does the world a favor and treats Kellen Moore like they did Jared Zabransky.
Wesley
November 20th, 2010
6:26 pm
Great…. playing in Atlanta….again…sigh…we have a beautiful stadium and campus in Athens and instead we want to go to Atlanta…no tailgate, just ride MARTA!
Wesley
November 20th, 2010
6:31 pm
And Boise Fan, you moron, you already play in the WAC, you are moving to the MWC!
Wild One 13
November 20th, 2010
7:55 pm
This os the only way the dawgs will get to play in the dome as long as mark Richt is their coach!!!
The Exterminator
November 20th, 2010
8:09 pm
Good move for recruiting, Evans never should have scheduled Louisville for a home and home, Clemson would have been better, Chick Fil-A wanted us so bad they paid $600k to buy out Louisville, I hope we are in this game more often to kepp Bama out out of our backyard. And have hope, Kellin Moore is graduating. This game will get us ready for S. Carolina better than a cakewalk over the Louisiana-Lafayettes of the world. Well done, McGarity.
Now fire Bobo.
bigcalidawg
November 20th, 2010
8:21 pm
“much to the dismay of the Cardinals” my butt.
They got bought out…..which means they get to “double-dip” and get paid $600 g’s plus whatever take they get from their home game vs. NC.
We better have our “D” ready. That first half, we’re gonna get Blitzkrieged.
This is NOT the BSU team we played in 2005, but……..if we pull it off? It could soften the blow of our annually brutal SEC schedule and could wipe clean a conference loss….
silly uga fans
November 20th, 2010
9:04 pm
Way to step up and play a team that losses over half of it’s starters and the main players that got them to were they are now.
The Exterminator
November 20th, 2010
9:21 pm
Hey, “silly” -
Who is your team, and would you have turned down this deal, you cowardly chickens–t c–ksu–er.
Jacque
November 20th, 2010
9:22 pm
You dawgtards keep forgetting that with all your offseason arrests, Warden Richt will suspend 6-8 players for the first game.
There’s a reason why UGA is called The Cesspool of the South.
Brunswick
November 20th, 2010
9:24 pm
Dawgs beat Tech easy next week-38-10. Ga tech barely beat a terrible duke team at home!!! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!
The Exterminator
November 20th, 2010
9:25 pm
Jacque-off:
See my last post and answer the same question.
The Plain Sickening Truth About UGA
November 20th, 2010
9:30 pm
FROM ANOTHER AJC BLOG: Reading all these simple minded and illiterate comments from the THUGA rednecks remind me that I was right to routinely reject any applicant for a job when I was the Personnel Director for a Fortune 500 Company, Naturally being a Tech Grad (IM 1976)I already knew of the educational gaps for THUGA grads and the redneck work ethics they brought to the job. Occasionally I would ,against my better judgement, feed one of the poor things into some half-ass entry level job just to seee if my opinion of their qualifications, or more than likely unqualifications, and without fail they had either already been fired or quit. The ones that managed to stay provided me daily glimpses of my mistakes.
It was sort of pitiful to seee the poor things come in with their degrees and actually think they were qualified. Frankly a degree from THUGA held about the same weight as Fort Valley State, ABAC or Clark of Atlanta. Actually I preferred a degree holder from these Institutions of “higher learning” to THUGA as they knew which side of the 8 ball they were on and had better attitudes.
Think about the football team THUGA puts on the field. 96% of the players are academically provisionally accepted, with Adams and his cronies knowing full well that they will use up all their coaching and tutors and elligibility and then have their asses kicked out on the street and soon be pushing grocery carts around Atlanta looking for a warm place to sleep. What a pitiful way to run the State’s flagship university. I am going to this next week’s game where the UGA THUGS will undoubtedly whip my North Avenue Scholar Athletes once again. Brawn and brainless win out over brains any day of the week when you are talking mayhem on the field. But once again I am hoping that Tech stomps their sorry asses.
I couldn’t have said it better myself. What a disgrace and embarrassment UGA is to this state.
COACH B
November 20th, 2010
9:35 pm
45-13. That was the last time Boise came to Georgia and we won the SEC IN 2005. We’ll use it as a springboard to another SEC title. MARK IT DOWN, YOU HEARD IT HEAR FIRST.
The Exterminator
November 20th, 2010
9:35 pm
Dear Plain Sickening:
Who is your team? And can you form an original thought, you cowardly chickens–t c–ksu–er.
crabapplejoe
November 20th, 2010
10:08 pm
Its amusing to me to no end to come on these threads and see UGA/Tech fans arguing which team’s 72 IQ thugs should have not been admitted to their respective schools as “student athletes”…..that used to be a relevant argument that Tech easily won….times have changed and both schools admit players who, if they don’t go to the NFL, will be security guards at best….LMAO.
Bored
November 20th, 2010
10:10 pm
Nice hat Dan Mullen.
bigcalidawg
November 20th, 2010
10:13 pm
The Plain Sickening Truth About UGA
Actually, UGA football is only behing Vandy, in the SEC, in the APR.
Clearly……..a bigoted blowhard, such as that poster on the other AJC blog, is not only a poor employer (see high employee turnover reference) but one who is focused on lining his pockets, rather than in helping others.
Education, or no……..class should be maintained. That is a shameful display of humanity………
Roll It Up
November 21st, 2010
1:17 am
The Dawgs will beat boise st. like a rented mule. Boise’s overrated and losing all their top talent. The GA team in 2011 will be the best in the SEC with a deep and experienced oline and dline.
DJlaysitup
November 21st, 2010
4:04 am
This is stupid IMHO….Boise State is 24-0 in their last 24 games and 12-2 before that. People who think they are a bunch of Idaho hicks don’t realize that 10 of their 22 starters are from California, the rest are from Texas, Washington, Oregon, Utah, etc. They even have two Georgia kids on their roster (one from Gwinnett County)…If their QB doesn’t go pro they will kill UGA…what’s wrong with UT-Chatt?
DJlaysitup
November 21st, 2010
4:06 am
P.S. – their coach is really smart.
Mike Bobo
November 21st, 2010
9:13 am
Hey guys dont worry, I already have a game plan for Boise St. and its the same plan that I always have and that is just call plays and see if they work.
Jborodawg
November 21st, 2010
9:33 am
Great move! Dropping Lewisburg and getting national exposure with Boise will be good for the program….IF we win.
Gooooooo Dawgs! THWT!!!
Surprised
November 21st, 2010
10:05 am
Great,
We’re going to get smashed in the dome again.
Dave from GT
November 21st, 2010
10:16 am
LET’S SEE….. NEXT WEEKEND IS THE START OF AT LEAST A 2 GAME LOSING STREAK!
Dave from GT
November 21st, 2010
10:18 am
WAY TO GO, BUTTSNIFFERS. THIS GAME IS SURE TO INCREASE YOUR ABILITY TO RECRUIT IN THE STATE OF IDAHO!
San Francisco Dawg
November 21st, 2010
11:43 am
This is a great decision…win, lose or draw, the Dawgs needed a National game! And what if Boise State turns out to be the 2010 National Champ? Great motivation for CMR, Bobo and Grantham to win big…
silly uga fans
November 21st, 2010
12:20 pm
exterminator,
Does it matter what team I pull for? The point is some UGA fans act as if UGA is stepping up to the plate when in reality UGA made a wise choice in playing a team that has looked good over the last two seasons playing lesser opponents and the players that got them there will be gone.
crabapplejoe,
You need to check some facts. GT has let about 7% of it’s student athletes in school that do not meet thier standards UGA is above 90%. That proves that UGA is all sport revenues and not about education. I do not fault UGA for this since besides Vandy all SEC schools are guilty of this type of admission standards when it comes to athletes. Case in point AJ Green, there is no way UGA admits this kid if he can’t catch a football.