ESPN Announces Game Time for Georgia Bulldogs and South Carolina Gamecocks
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ATHENS - The Georgia Bulldogs will play the South Carolina Gamecocks at noon in Columbia, ESPN announced Thursday.
So far the Bulldogs have had five games announced for the 2022 season, and none of them are prime-time kickoffs. Georgia will travel to take on Shane Beamer and his Gamecocks at Noon on ESPN.
2022 Georgia Bulldogs schedule
A week after the Bulldogs’ game against Oregon, Samford will play the Bulldogs in Athens at 4 PM for a game that kicks off on the SEC Network. UGA’s next home game, against Kent State, will only be available in streaming format on SEC Network+. That game kicks off at Noon.
The USC-UGA game being put at noon follows a trend Disney has used lately of placing a top-ranked team playing at that spot in order to compete against FOX’s No. 1 selection of the day in either the Big Ten or Big 12.
Georgia is a major TV draw. A season ago Georgia’s blowout win over the Gamecocks was watched by 2.1 million viewers on ESPN while going head to head with Auburn-Penn State on ABC. The UGA-USC game was the most-watched game on cable that weekend. Still 2021 USC-UGA was the least-watched Georgia-South Carolina game in Kirby Smart’s time as coach in Athens.
Disney put five UGA games on at Noon in 2021 - including the massive showdown between No. 2 UGA and No. 8 Arkansas. That game, a 37-0 win for the Dawgs, was watched by more than 3.8 million viewers - better than both Notre Dame-Cincinnati and LSU-Auburn, which were on the same day. Georgia-Carolina games this century average 3.6 million viewers a game (cable and network included).
UGA fans long ago soured on playing noon games, particularly at home. But the trend appears to be here to stay for at least the meantime.
Georgia will open the season against Oregon in Atlanta. The Bulldogs are listed by FanDuel as one of the favorites to win the 2022 national championship.