Georgia AD Josh Brooks addresses future of Florida rivalry in Jacksonville

The future of The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party — the annual rivalry between Florida and Georgia — beyond 2024 and 2025 is still up in the air. With planned construction set to renovate EverBank Stadium in 2026 and 2027, the neutral-site rivalry in Jacksonville, Florida, will need to find a temporary landing spot.

And there are several options, according to Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks, who explained some of the situation on the Paul Finebaum Show on Friday. According to Brooks, the two main options are to either play a home-and-homes series for those two years — as has happened in the past — or to play the 2026 and 2027 games at other neutral sites.

“Yeah. So I think we can look at an option somewhere in the state of Georgia one year and in the state of Florida and just see. We’ve got some good, different cities that could work well,” Brooks said.

The prime candidate for the state of Georgia would be Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, whereas two locations jump out as options in Florida: Hard Rock Stadium in Miami or Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

But in the past when the game was moved out of Jacksonville, the Gators and Bulldogs have played a home-and-home, giving each team the chance to host their rival.

That remains an option, too, albeit not the first choice from the sound of things.

“Yeah, so that’s an option that’s there but I think when we look at our responsibilities to support our athletic departments, the revenue being a big piece of that and that allows us to fund programs and recruit and do things we need to do, so we gotta look and see what makes sense and I think, again, we’re working very well,” Brooks said.

The ultimate job for him and Scott Stricklin — Brooks’ counterpart at Florida — is to make the best choice for their respective athletic departments

“There’s some planned construction that’s going to go on in the stadium here which is going to give us the opportunity to look at some different options. So thankfully we have a great working relationship with Scott and the staff at Florida. So we’re going to look at all options for ’26, ’27 whether that be home-and-home, whether that be some other neutral sites. And ultimately we’re going to make the best decisions for the University of Georgia and the University of Florida,” Brooks said.