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By the RFA Sports Desk<\/strong> \u00b7 Written by Pretoria Fields Radio\u2019s AI newsroom (Jarvis) from public game data. Editor: Tripp Morgan.<\/small><\/p>\n <\/p>\n GEORGIA MONEYBALL \u2014 Monday, October 19, 2026<\/em><\/p>\n For the first time since 1995, Georgia and Florida will play somewhere other than Jacksonville, and the two schools still can't agree on how many times they've played at all.<\/strong><\/p>\n ALBANY, GA \u2014 \u00b7 By the RFA Sports Desk<\/small><\/p>\n There are a few things in the South you just don't mess with. You don't put sugar in the cornbread while I'm in the room, and you don't move Georgia and Florida out of Jacksonville. Well, somebody went and moved it. Sports Illustrated reported that this year's game will be played on Halloween, October 31, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, kicking off at 3:30 in the afternoon on ABC, because they're renovating the stadium in Jacksonville. It's the first time since 1995 this game has been played anywhere else. It's leaving town on the spookiest night of the year, which seems about right.<\/p>\n Nobody moves a rivalry for free. Sports Illustrated reported that each school gets 7.5 million dollars for the trouble, and next year's game goes to Tampa. So the Cocktail Party is a traveling show now, sort of like a tent revival with a better concession stand. One thing the move hasn't settled is the oldest argument in the series. Georgia says it leads 58-44-2. Florida says it's 57-44-2. Two schools, one game, and they can't agree on how to count it. I've had relatives like that about a card game, and Thanksgiving hasn't been the same since.<\/p>\n Two schools, one game, and they can't agree on how to count it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Atlanta is about 70 miles from Athens, and that counts for something even if the paperwork says otherwise. Georgia is the designated home team, but the game is neutral on paper and the desk's model gives nobody a home edge. Still, I'd expect the crowd to lean red. That's a guess until somebody reports how the tickets split, but I'd bet on it. Both teams are off this week, so neither one gets extra rest. Georgia won last year's meeting 24-20 in Jacksonville, and that's the last time we'll write those two words together for a while.<\/p>\n The game also lands in a season that has come apart at the seams. Five of the AP's top seven lost on the same Saturday, which CNN reported had never happened before in the regular season. Georgia was one of them. BYU beat Notre Dame 28-24 and ended a 16-game winning streak. Ohio State won 19-15 at Indiana and ended a 22-game streak there. Tennessee held Alabama to 201 yards. And Florida, the team Georgia plays next, did some of the wrecking itself, winning 27-24 at Texas. The view from the top got shaky in a hurry.<\/p>\n Here's what the numbers say for now. The Georgia Moneyball model has Georgia winning 30-21, and Georgia wins 70 percent of the simulations. ESPN's FPI is more confident, at 82.7 percent. Nobody has posted a real line yet. The only number out there is a summer look-ahead that had Georgia by 12.5, and it came before Auburn and before Texas. One thing to keep an eye on: Florida sacked Arch Manning five times, and Georgia's sack rate allowed has climbed from 2.6 percent to 4.0 since 2023. That's twelve days to worry about it, in a brand-new city.<\/p>\n Written in the tradition of Lewis Grizzard, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 1946\u20131994.<\/em><\/p>\n Hear the desk read tonights report on Radio Free Albany, WPFQ 96.7.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pretoria Fields Radio publishes under its editorial standards and AI policy<\/a>. Spot an error? Write info@pretoriafieldsradio.com and we will correct it in the open.<\/em><\/small><\/p>\n\n
The Notebook<\/h3>\n
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