Gwinnett Daily Post

Home games with South Carolina, LSU, Missouri, and Kentucky highlight the 2013 University of Georgia football schedule released Thursday by the Southeastern Conference.

The Bulldogs will also host home games against North Texas and Appalachian State as well as travel to Clemson, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Auburn, and Georgia Tech. Georgia will face Florida in the traditional game played at Jacksonville. Two open dates also dot the Bulldog schedule.

The 2013 schedule is considered a “bridge” schedule and not based on any other previous or future scheduling formats. The SEC Athletics Directors will convene in Spring 2013 to begin formulating schedules for the 2014 season and beyond.

“As we began working on the 2013 football schedule, it became apparent that the conference would need another year of the ‘bridge’ schedule to make everything work,” said SEC Commissioner Mike Slive. “I appreciate the SEC transition team and our athletics directors, who came together to put this schedule in place. We look forward to starting with our new scheduling rotation in 2014.”

The eight-game conference schedule consists of six games played inside the division and two games against teams from the opposite division. The cross-divisional common opponents that were previously announced by the conference will not take place until 2014.

In order to maintain a balanced schedule for the 2014 season and beyond, there are three games that will have repeat hosts from the 2012 schedule. Those games are Ole Miss at Alabama, Texas A&M at Ole Miss and Georgia at Auburn.

"There were so many variables in dealing with conference games, and the three repeat venue games, while not desired, provided the only solution to the complex scheduling issues,” said Slive.

"The 2013 schedule will obviously be very challenging,” said UGA director of athletics Greg McGarity. “Our number one priority throughout this process was to protect our long-standing rivalry game against Auburn, and in order to keep this series intact, it necessitated a return to Auburn in 2013. We will start working on the 2014 rotating SEC schedule this Spring, and we can confirm that Auburn will be returning to Athens in 2014."