| Sport | College football |
|---|---|
| First meeting | February 20, 1892 Auburn, 10–0 |
| Latest meeting | September 30, 2023 Georgia, 27–20 |
| Next meeting | October 5, 2024 |
| Statistics | |
| Meetings total | 128 |
| All-time series | Georgia leads, 64–56–8[1] |
| Largest victory | Auburn, 44–0 (1900) |
| Longest win streak | Georgia, 9 (1923–1931) |
| Current win streak | Georgia, 7 (2017–present) |
The Auburn–Georgia football rivalry is a college football rivalry game between the Auburn Tigers and Georgia Bulldogs.
The two teams first played each other in 1892, and the rivalry has been renewed annually since 1944 for a total of 126 games as of 2021. Because it is the oldest rivalry still contested between teams in the Deep South, the series is referred to by both schools as the "Deep South's Oldest Rivalry" (although the first football game played in the Deep South was Wofford vs. Furman in 1889).[2][3][4] The series is currently the second-most played rivalry in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), behind Minnesota–Wisconsin (Paul Bunyan's Axe) and tied with North Carolina–Virginia (South's Oldest Rivalry).
The Deep South's Oldest Rivalry is eight months older than the South's Oldest Rivalry, with Auburn–Georgia first meeting on February 20, 1892, and North Carolina–Virginia first meeting on October 22, 1892. The Auburn–Georgia series has been played almost continuously from the beginning, with the exception of 1893 (rematch not scheduled), 1897 (Georgia disbanded its team early in the season following the fatal on-field injury of one of its players), 1917 and 1918 (Georgia did not field teams during World War I), and 1943 (Auburn did not field a team due to World War II). The Deep South's Oldest Rivalry and the South's Oldest Rivalry were tied from 1910–1942 until North Carolina–Virginia surpassed Auburn–Georgia in 1943 (though North Carolina–Virginia continued to trail Southern rivalry Texas–Texas A&M by two games). Conference realignments in the early 2010s ended several prominent rivalries, allowing North Carolina–Virginia (in 2014) and Auburn–Georgia (in 2015) to surpass Kansas–Missouri and Texas–Texas A&M, giving North Carolina–Virginia the undisputed lead as most-played rivalry in the South and tied with Cincinnati–Miami University (Battle for the Bell) for the second-most played rivalry in the FBS. They would soon be joined by Auburn–Georgia in 2017 after the SEC foes played twice in the same season – once in the regular season and again in the conference championship game.[5] The Cincinnati–Miami University matchup was cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving Auburn–Georgia and North Carolina–Virginia tied for the second-most played rivalry in FBS.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
serieswas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Georgia and Auburn renew Deep South's Oldest Rivalry". University of Georgia Sports Communications. November 8, 2010. Archived from the original on September 6, 2014. Retrieved December 5, 2012.
- ^ "The Deep South's Oldest Rivalry". Auburn University Sports Communications. Archived from the original on September 6, 2014. Retrieved December 5, 2012.
- ^ Loran Smith (November 13, 2010). "Smith: Rivalry has long, grand history". Athens Banner-Herald. Retrieved December 19, 2011.
- ^ Auburn–Georgia may eventually surpass North Carolina–Virginia in games played due to the divisional pairings of their respective conferences, the SEC and ACC. Auburn and Georgia are in different SEC divisions, which could set up an SEC Championship Game match-up, the second game in the same season (as was the case in 2017). North Carolina and Virginia, on the other hand, are in the same ACC division, making an ACC Championship Game match-up impossible.