If Southeastern Conference football seasons like this one continue to transpire, the 2014 Missouri Tigers will become quite the trivia answer.
The Missouri team of six years ago represents the last time the league's Eastern Division champion didn't emerge from the Georgia-Florida game. The No. 5 Bulldogs (4-1) and No. 8 Gators (3-1) meet at TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville on Saturday afternoon having already separated themselves by at least two games in the loss column from the five other East members.
"Every year, this matchup is always an important part of your season," Georgia junior cornerback Tyson Campbell said this week. "It always leads to bragging rights over the SEC East. It's one of the biggest college football rivalries."
This border war has taken an abrupt turn to the north in recent years.
Though Georgia claims a 53-43-2 advantage in a series that began in 1904, the Gators went on a sizzling 18-3 run from 1990 to 2010, which coincided with Florida's 1996 national championship season under Steve Spurrier and the 2006 and 2008 national titles under Urban Meyer. A national crown has eluded Georgia since 1980 - a stat Florida fans will bring up with regularity - but the Bulldogs have won the past three series meetings by the average score of 34-14.
Georgia is seeking a fourth consecutive series triumph for the first time since claiming six straight from 1978-83.
AP photo by John Raoux / Florida quarterback Kyle Trask, left, scrambles out of the pocket under pressure from the Georgia defense on Nov. 2, 2019, in Jacksonville, Fla.The recent winner in Jacksonville has typically clinched the division or taken complete control, and it will be no different this time around, because the losing team in Jacksonville will need the winning team to lose twice the rest of the way.
Georgia's final four opponents are Missouri, Mississippi State, South Carolina and Vanderbilt - teams that are currently a combined 5-14. Florida's final five foes are Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Tennessee and LSU, which have a combined 8-17 mark.
"It's always a big matchup in the East when these two play down in Jacksonville," Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. "I think it will be interesting to see the dynamic of the crowd and whether it feels different from traditional Georgia-Florida games. I guess we'll see."
Said Florida counterpart Dan Mullen: "We're very excited about this game. You love playing in these big games, and this obviously is another big one for us."
TIAA Bank Field, the home of the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars, will have a capacity of 17,962. There will be an open parking space between each vehicle outside the stadium, and tailgating is not allowed.
So there won't be much of a party feel to this year's game, with the obvious exception of the winning locker room.
"At the end of the day, you're playing football," Bulldogs redshirt sophomore running back Zamir White said. "You're putting your pads on just like they're putting their pads on, so we've just got to go out there and do what we do and play football."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.