The Georgia-Florida State home-and-home series was originally announced in May of 2022. Georgia had won just one national championship at that point. The College Football Playoff still had four teams and the SEC still had divisions.

Four years later, the series was called off. It’s the fourth marquee home-and-home series Georgia has called off in the previous two years. Florida State joins UCLA, Louisville and NC State among the teams that Georgia has called off a home-and-home with since July of 2024.

“Georgia and Florida State have mutually agreed it is in the best interest of both schools to cancel our home-and-home series scheduled for 2027 and 2028, with the focus shifting to a future neutral site contest between the two programs,” Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks said.  “While we are still early in the process regarding neutral site plans, we remain optimistic and look forward to further conversations with Florida State.”

The Florida State cancellation comes after both the SEC and ACC moved to nine conference games. With Georgia and Florida State having annual rivalry games against Power Four foes, there is much less of an appetite to play an 11th game against a Power Four opponent.

Had the Georgia and Florida State game been played in 2027, the Bulldogs would’ve potentially had five home games, six road games and a neutral site game against Florida in Tampa, Florida.

“I don’t think we actually know what the effect of the nine-game [conference schedule] will be,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said earlier this month. “I think it will be very interesting to look back and say OK this is when we did it and what has the fallout been.”

Georgia isn’t alone in pulling games against Power Four opponents off its schedule. Alabama did the same this week, opting to cancel a series against Oklahoma State. The Crimson Tide will keep its series against Ohio State, ensuring that Alabama plays nine conference games and a Power Four nonconference foe.

If you remove the Georgia-Georgia Tech rivalry, Georgia’s home and home against Notre Dame in 2017 and 2019 is the only marquee nonconference home-and-home the Bulldogs have played under Smart.

Georgia has had neutral-site games against Clemson, Oregon and North Carolina. It now seems the game against Florida State will fall into that category, should it get scheduled.

It is worth noting that there is no marquee season-opening game scheduled for Mercedes-Benz Stadium following this year’s game between Auburn and Baylor. Georgia’s past games against Clemson, Oregon and North Carolina have all been played there. The Bulldogs also faced Clemson in Charlotte to open the 2021 season.

Despite calling off the games against Florida State, Georgia does still have home-and-homes against Ohio State and Clemson on its schedule. Georgia is set to host Ohio State in 2030 before visiting the Buckeyes in 2031. The Bulldogs are scheduled to host Clemson in 2030 and 2032 and visit the Tigers in 2029 and 2033.

Given the way scheduling in college football has changed, it would be understandable to be skeptical that those games get played.

With the SEC moving to nine conference games, it would seem that Georgia will trade in the trips to Doak Campbell Stadium and Ohio State for more frequent road games against Arkansas and Mississippi State.

Smart has already hinted at his frustration with the SEC adding an extra conference game and why it may not have worked out the way some had hoped.

“I think everybody was excited, and then they thought that there would be a heavier weight put on strength of schedule in the selection of the playoff teams,” Smart said in a recent interview with Paul Finebaum and we still have not gone through a nine-game schedule with the selection process to be seen, but the valuation that we’re seeing is the more losses you have, it’s just a measure of OK, these teams are equal because they both have three or four losses.”

With Florida State coming off the schedule, Georgia does have two openings on its schedule that it will need to fill. The Bulldogs will have nine conference games that season — including trips to Texas and Texas A&M — and a game at Georgia Tech.

Georgia had been set to host UCLA to open this season. Instead, that game has been replaced with a home game against Tennessee State. set for Sept. 5.