CLEMSON – On Monday, it was reported Clemson’s and Georgia’s upcoming home-and-home series will no longer take place. One day later, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney gave his perspective.

The Clemson Insider confirmed, as well on Monday night, that the two longtime rivals have cancelled their upcoming matchups, which were set to take place in 2029, 2030, 2032 and 2033. The cancellations followed a litany of other Power Four schools that have slashed other non-conference games.

“I mean, 2026, in the world, that’s all I can tell you is that’s college football,” Swinney said. “I hate it, because I just think it’s great for fans, but I get it.” 

The two programs originally scheduled the two respective series in 2018 and 2019, when the College Football Playoff included just four teams and each Power Four team played a standard eight conference games. 

Now, with the SEC playing nine conference games beginning in the 2026 season and the ACC moving that way in 2027, each game has greater playoff implications, and a non-conference loss could be more detrimental to postseason hopes, with harder overall schedules. Clemson will move to a nine-game conference schedule in 2028, following contractual issues.

The Tigers’ leader relegated the decision to a “sign of the times” in 2026.

“You don’t have many people playing 11 Power Four games,” Swinney said. “We’ve been playing 10 forever around here. But, going to nine conference games, I wish it was less, I wish everybody played seven conference games so then you have more crossover games throughout all of college football but it is what it is.”

Clemson most recently played Georgia in 2024 to open its season, marking the latest installment of 66 total games between the two Power Four schools in a 75-mile radius. The Bulldogs own a 44-18-4 lead over the Tigers in the all-time series record. The two were supposed to meet first at Memorial Stadium in 2029, then in Athens the next season, before flipping the two locations in the next two years.

Now, the Tigers will need to fill a non-conference opponent in 2030, 2032 and 2033, with other local opponents locked in for the other upcoming years. Most likely, Clemson will try to schedule a Group of 6 or FCS opponent in Georgia’s place, TCI learned.

On the flip side, in 2027, the Tigers will begin a 12-year home-and-home series with Notre Dame, and is also still scheduled to play Oklahoma, currently led by former Tiger defensive coordinator Brent Venables, in 2035 and 2036.

Of course, Clemson will still play non-conference rival South Carolina on the Saturday after Thanksgiving each year, assuming no drastic changes occur.

Clemson and Georgia played 24 times from 1962-1987. The only two times they did not meet during that stretch was in 1966 and 1972.

The best stretch in the history of the rivalry came from 1977-1987. Known by some as the Eleven-Year War, no rivalry in the country was more intense or competitive than the Clemson-Georgia Series.

In those 11 years, the two teams battled to a 5-5-1 record, which started with a one-point Clemson victory in 1977 in Athens and ended with a one-point Clemson victory in 1987 in Clemson. The average margin of victory in the series during that 11-year stretch was 4.7 points per game. Nine of the 11 games were decided by a touchdown or less.

The annual series discontinued in 1988 due to conflict in Georgia’s SEC schedule. They played home-and-home in 1990 and 1991, 1994 and 1995, 2002 and 2003 and 2013 and 2014.

Georgia has won eight of the last 10 meetings and three straight, including a 34-3 victory over the Tigers in 2024 in Atlanta — the last time the two rivals met on the gridiron.