Georgia-Ohio State on slate for 2020-21

For everyone who thought Greg McGarity was going to dumb down Georgia's football schedule, the first-year Georgia athletics director has yet another answer.

Ohio State and Georgia have a memorandum of understanding to play each other in 2020 and 2021, McGarity said on Tuesday. He said the agreement was signed last week.

McGarity said he set out to find a Midwestern, Big Ten-type team to schedule, and reached out to a number of them. Notre Dame and Michigan weren't interested, but Ohio State was, and something got locked up fairly quickly.

"I think the lure there is to try to play someone that has a rich, traditional football history," McGarity said.

Further details of the series - which home sites come in which year, for instance - are yet to be worked out. McGarity hopes that can be announced in January.

The memorandum of understanding is different from a signed contract, in that either school can escape it if something drastic comes up. Absent that, McGarity said an official announcement should be made shortly.

McGarity was also speaking to Penn State, but he said the agreement with Ohio State should close down those discussions, as well as any other big-time schools. Georgia prefers the seven home-game model, and besides the annual Georgia Tech game, also is set to play Clemson in 2013-14.

"These are the types of games you want to schedule every 8-10 years," McGarity said.

Last month, Georgia announced it would be playing Boise State in the 2011 kickoff challenge. McGarity's first big scheduling move came in September, when he canceled a planned series with Oregon set for 2015-16.