There will not be another meeting (rematch) of Bevo and Uga this weekend. Bevo will not be allowed to attend the SEC Championship Game at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Citing sideline space constraints, SEC officials will not allow the Texas mascot to attend the SEC title game, according to Silver Spur Alumni Association Executive Director Ricky Brennes. Uga XI (nicknamed “Boom.”), the University of Georgia’s bulldog mascot, will be in attendance.
This year’s National Championship Game is also at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. If the Longhorns advance to the college football playoff final, Bevo will not be allowed at that game either.
“When we received the request for Bevo to be on the sideline in Mercedes-Benz Stadium, our staff looked at several alternatives including the sideline location,” the SEC said in a statement. “The reality is there is limited sideline space at the stadium. We can’t jeopardize the safety of Bevo or the game participants. With the narrow sidelines, location of multiple sets for television and camera carts, there is not enough space. While we want to honor tradition across the conference, the space limitation is a reality.”
This will be the second time fans are denied a rematch between Bevo and Uga. The first time the two met was in the 2019 Sugar Bowl, and things got ugly between the two. If you don’t remember, Bevo charged Uga on the sideline before the game when the handlers attempted a summit between two of the most famous live mascots in all of college football.
The skirmish was caught live on ESPN. The Longhorn Network was actually doing play-by-play of the meeting. The incident is without a doubt the most famous live mascot interaction ever.
The second possible encounter between the steer and the dog at DKR in October didn’t happen. The mascot’s handler, Charles Seiler, said the decision not to travel to October’s game was based on logistics, rather than a hesitance to reunite with Bevo.
Uga lives in Savannah, Georgia, which is over 200 miles away from Athens, where the university is located. Seiler said the almost 5 hour trip to Athens to meet up with the team’s plane, plus the two hour flight would be too much for the English Bulldog.
“That’s a lot of wear and tear on the dog,” Seiler told the Austin American-Statesman. “…Those games way out in the middle of the country are hard for us to get to. This dog that we have ‒ well, he’s not new ‒ but he’s only two-and-a-half, and we haven’t flown him yet, and he hasn’t been on a team bus yet.”
The SEC Championship Game is in Atlanta, about 50 miles farther from Savannah than Athens. But without the added plane trip, it seems like the Seiler family will make the trip.