The Georgia Bulldogs will play the Kentucky Wildcats on Oct. 23, 2010 in Lexington. Moving the game forward to late October brings it back into prime horse racing season at Keeneland. From 1956-2002, Georgia always played Kentucky in late October. Over the decades, many Dawg fans like myself enjoyed the Friday and sometimes Saturday trip to the track. It was one of the best road trips in the SEC.
When the Kentucky game moved to mid-November in '03, we lost the only compelling thing about the UK trip. Without a day at the track, it's just a long drive to a vanilla stadium to typically watch misplaced Big 10 fans sit on their hands while the Dawgs typically beat them. We went 21-4 in Lexington during that '56-'02 stretch.
The other upside of moving the game means that it forces the SEC West rotational opponent games up to September or the first week in October, and it moves a non-conference cupcake game back to November. Essentially, it gives us two bye weeks in November. One off week and one week against a likely Div I-AA team to rest up.
More importantly, the extra November home game will help break up the 4 consecutive SEC road game problem we faced in 2004 and 2008. I'd love a bye week before the Florida game, but it's much more important to not play4 consecutive games away from home.
In 2010, we have open slots on Nov. 6th and the week before the Tech game. One will be filled with a power puff game while the other will be a bye.
When I was confirming that this wasn't a typo in the media guide, I also asked if the move of the UK game to October was permanent. The person I asked didn't know. This could just be a one year thing to help avoid the 4 in a row problem.
Regardless, I'm thankful both for a trip to the track...and that I don't have to do a Starkville to Jacksonville to Lexington to Auburn four game swing next year. That's hell on those of us who actually travel to all the road games.
We'll see what the long term schedule implications later.
PWD
This scheduling development was mentioned on Page 2 of the football media guide; however, it somehow slipped past unnoticed by most of us.
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