College football took another shot late Monday night, when reports surfaced that Clemson and Georgia were canceling their future matchups, with no plans to play anytime soon.
It was another blow to college football, which slowly is driving their fans away from the game.
Big money has turned the sport into a circus, with players constantly trying to sue the NCAA for every rule it tries to enforce. Players transfer to a different school just to chase the money. The enormous amount of money being put into roster construction is out of control, as are salaries for both coaches and players.
Now, because the conferences and schools have to make more money, they have to play an extra conference game, which is killing regional non-conference series like Clemson and Georgia.
“I mean its 2026, in this world (of college football), that’s all I can tell you is that’s college football,” Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said. “I hate it, because I just think it’s great for fans, but I get it.”
Clemson is the fourth non-conference opponent Georgia has canceled its home-and-home series with – as it already canceled future home-and-home games with NC State, Louisville and Florida State. The Bulldogs will play the Seminoles in a neutral site game in 2028 and, of course, have their home-and-home in-state rivalry matchup with Georgia Tech every year.
At the moment, Georgia still has its 2030 and 2031 dates with Ohio State still on the books.
The Tigers have no one from an SEC regional standpoint, other than in-state rival South Carolina, on their future schedules. They begin a 12-year series against Notre Dame next year and have a home-and-home series with Oklahoma in 2035 and 2036, but that could be on the chopping block as well.
Though Oklahoma is an SEC member, it is not exactly a regional game, and Notre Dame isn’t one, either.
The days of Clemson playing Auburn, Georgia and LSU seem to be gone unless they meet up in the College Football Playoff or some “who cares” bowl game one day. Instead, because of monetary reasons, fans get to watch Clemson play the likes of Syracuse, Boston College, Cal and Stanford as conference games and Georgia State, Wofford, Troy, Furman and The Citadel in non-conference games.
Don’t those games sound fun and exciting for college football fans?
“You don’t have many people playing 11 Power Four games,” Swinney said. “We’ve been playing 10 forever around here. But, going to nine conference games, I wish it was less. I wish everybody played seven conference games so then you have more crossover games throughout all of college football, but it is what it is.”
–photo courtesy of Clemson Athletics