Peach Bowl president and CEO, Gary Stokan, joined UGA Wire via the “UGA Football Live with J.C. Shelton” podcast this week to talk about this year’s College Football Playoff semifinal game in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
If Georgia beats LSU this weekend in the SEC Championship game and finishes as the No. 1 team in the nation heading into the playoffs, the Bulldogs will make their first Peach Bowl playoff appearance.
The all-but-hometown Bulldogs are familiar with the trip to Atlanta for SEC championships, as well as this year’s Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game versus Oregon.
On what the game means to the state of Georgia and the city of Atlanta:
“Atlanta is the fourth largest convention town in the United States, only behind Orlando, Chicago and Las Vegas, not necessarily in that order. And to be the fourth largest convention town and to have, this year, four of the six largest conventions be college football games – Two Chick-fil-A kickoff games, the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl and the SEC championship – That’s how important college football is to Atlanta.”
“That’s one of the reasons they call us the capital of college football with the College Football Hall of Fame here and soon to have the national championship in 2025 here and another semifinal and 2025. We’ve got some great games coming up along with our Clemson Georgia Chick-fil-A kickoff game to open up the 2024 season.”
On what it means for Georgia football to have an opportunity to appear in a playoff game in its home state:
“If the season, like you said, were to end today, we’d have No. 1 Georgia against probably No. 4 USC tonight. It’s great to have Georgia. I know that Kirby and Georgia is trying to make this a December to remember with winning the SEC championship and then coming in and winning the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl if they were to play in it in the semi final here.”
“It was great to have Georgia and Georgia Tech in our Chick-fil-A kickoff games as we always want to support our local teams. But to have a semifinal game is really special to the all the whole of college football. And to have as we’ve had the last two times, with hosting No. 1 vs. No. 4, it’s very special when you can have that kind of game to end the season in Atlanta.”
On the College Football Playoff expansion:
“There’s two parts of it right. There’s 2024 and 2025, which they’re trying to get done early. What they’re trying to do is expand to 12 as the president’s want them to do early, meaning it would be pushed to 2024. 2025 doesn’t change for us, because we have a semifinal either way. 2024 would add a quarterfinal game for us, where you’d have either No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 or No. 4 playing against another team, five through 12. That’s really the only change for us.”
“Now the other change would be that the semifinal would move to probably Jan. 8 or 9 on a Thursday or Friday. And the quarterfinal games would probably take place Jan. 1 or 2. And we’ve cleared all that with the hotels with the stadium, so we’re ready to go. We’ve signed the agreement. If they can move forward in 2024 or 2025.”
On why the expansion was put in place:
“I think a few reasons, No. 1 I think there’s a desire by the commissioners and the presidents who were in control of the CFB to add participation. They wanted more schools involved. They wanted more players to have the opportunity to play in the playoff format. When you look at the NCAA basketball, you’re talking about 68 teams. There’s a lot more participation and the opportunity in football with only four, there’s not as much. And I think geographically it became the same teams with Georgia, Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Michigan.”
“They want to do spread the opportunity across the country and it’s great for college football, which is the second most favorite sport in this country only behind the NFL. We’re stronger when we’re east, west, north and south with all the conferences having competitive teams. Having USC, Michigan, Ohio State, along with TCU, Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia, Clemson, and Alabama; representation across the country only makes for great viewing great opportunities.”
“I think that was the main reason why they wanted to do it. Obviously, there’s the opportunity financially, to negotiate new TV deals, and to really probably add another partner to on the TV side, which would promote college football even more during the season. “If you have more than just what they have now on ESPN, who do who does a great job, but if you added a Fox, let’s say, or CBS and NBC they would promote the game even more. And then I think the other opportunities financially when you sign, you know, 12 team playoffs, there’s more money there to spread to the schools.
“When you talk about participation, too, you’re talking about teams that now will have an opportunity even in October and November to still be part of potentially getting to a 12 team playoff. Whereas if you lose two games by October, there’s never been, in nine years, a team with two losses to make it to the CFP.”
On how the expansion could impact name, image and likeness opportunities:
“Well, I certainly think there’ll be a trickle down to help the players in more ways than one, not only participation, but the opportunity to have name, image and likeness come into play, because there’ll be more teams in a playoff format. I think there’s no doubt that the benefit is to the players and really, I think it’s a win for everybody. A win for the fans, win for the media and for the players, the coaches and for the schools. I don’t see really any downside to it. And it will continue to grow the sport and keep the sport growing regionally, as well with younger players, because now all of a sudden, USC, UCLA, Oregon, Utah, out on the West Coast, those kids will grow up and see those teams play in playoff formats. They’ll say, hey, I want to be a part of that. At a younger age, they’ll stay in college football. Again, I think there’s a great trickle down from the opportunity to have this 12 team playoff.”
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