Future football schedules

In the same week that Georgia announced it had canceled a series with a Pac-10 team, it also became known that it had inked deals with two FCS (Division I-AA teams.)

But those two events are not related, the school said.

Georgia has finalized contracts to play Charleston Southern in 2014 and Georgia Southern in 2016. Georgia Southern is also set for the 2012 season, in an agreement that had been tentative for awhile and is now official.

While the temptation may be to say that Georgia is going to a cream-puff schedule, it seems the plan all along was for Georgia to schedule those games, regardless of the cancellation of the Oregon series.

“They’re not (related),” said associate athletics director Arthur Johnson, who handles scheduling. “Those are FCS schools we were going to schedule anyway. The goal was to have one a year.”

New athletics director Greg McGarity initiated the cancellation of the Oregon game, citing travel, and the desire to put the team in the best position possible to win an SEC championship.

That means Georgia Tech every year, and then possibly one more BCS-conference opponent. But only if it works within Georgia’s plan.

“We’re gonna try to play as many home games as possible,” Johnson said. “And then look at other situations on a case-by-case basis, in discussion with Greg and coach (Mark) Richt.”

Johnson granted that scheduling a second BCS-conference team will be difficult, since it would want a home-and-home.

“Or (we'd have to) pay a really big guarantee,” Johnson said.

Speaking of which, Georgia is paying Charleston Southern $475,000, and Georgia Southern $525,000 for each game. So getting an FBS team for a one-game deal will probably be twice that, and a BCS-conference team could be quite hefty.

As for who will replace Oregon, and other future games, Johnson said he’s in a “holding pattern” while they await word from the SEC on the conference schedules, starting with 2012.

Here’s what Georgia is locked into right now:

2011
Louisville
Coastal Carolina
New Mexico State
at Georgia Tech

2012
Buffalo
at Louisville
Georgia Southern
Georgia Tech

2013
North Texas
at Clemson
Appalachian State
at Georgia Tech

2014
Charleston Southern
Clemson
Georgia Tech

2015
at Georgia Tech

2016
Georgia Southern
Georgia Tech