Florida vs. Georgia 2026: Why the Game Is in Atlanta, Not Jacksonville, This Year
For the first time since 1995, the Florida-Georgia game will not be played on the banks of the St. Johns River. EverBank Stadium's $1.4 billion renovation sends the rivalry to Atlanta on Halloween - and Jacksonville waits until 2028 to get it back.
Jacksonville's biggest football weekend of the year is happening 340 miles away. The No. 17 Florida Gators (5-2, 3-2 SEC) meet the No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs (6-1, 4-1) on Saturday, October 31, at 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC - at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, not EverBank Stadium, where the rivalry has been played every year since 1933 outside a two-year stretch in the mid-1990s. The game, billed this year as the Invesco QQQ Atlanta Gridiron Classic, 'Cocktail Party Edition,' is the first Florida-Georgia meeting held in Atlanta.
The reason is on the St. Johns River waterfront: EverBank Stadium is in the middle of a $1.4 billion 'Stadium of the Future' renovation for the Jacksonville Jaguars that began in February 2025 and is scheduled to finish in August 2028. Capacity at the stadium is down to roughly 42,500 during construction - far short of what the Florida-Georgia game draws. The rivalry moves to Raymond James Stadium in Tampa in 2027 before returning to Jacksonville in 2028, with the contract keeping the game in Jacksonville through at least 2031.
The Halloween date adds a layer of history: the rivals last met on October 31 in 2015, when Florida beat Georgia 27-3 in Jacksonville. This year's game also marks the 100th anniversary of the annual series - the teams have met every season since 1926 except 1943, when Florida did not field a team during World War II - and it is the first ranked-versus-ranked meeting in the series since 2020, with first-year Florida head coach Jon Sumrall bringing a Gators team ranked for the first time in six years into the showdown.