College football needs more games like Georgia-Notre Dame

College football is a sport built on traditions and rivalries, but finding exciting new matchups like Notre Dame vs Georgia breathes life into the yearly monotony of the same tired narratives.

I believe in college football traditions. I cringe when I see conference realignments bring an end to classic rivalry games such as the Texas-Texas A&M battles or the Kansas-Missouri Border War. There’s a lot to be said for generations of fans being able to pass down the hate to their children and children’s children.

That said, it can get tedious…even tiresome. Every year, we hear about the same big games – Michigan-Ohio State, the Iron Bowl, the Cocktail Party, et al – and are treated to the same big buildup.

But did you see what happened in South Bend, Indiana this past week?

If you didn’t, you missed something pretty special.

No, I’m not talking about a clash between two teams who may meet again in the College Football Playoff, as it’s unlikely that either Georgia or Notre Dame will be there. But what I am referring to is the electric atmosphere and almost boundless energy which came out of South Bend and Notre Dame Stadium this weekend.

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Georgia and Notre Dame had not met on the gridiron since the 1981 Sugar Bowl – when Herschel Walker was king of college football and tear-away jerseys were actually still a thing. These two football programs have both seen some great seasons (as well as some lean years) since that meeting to decide the national championship.

The Bulldogs had not traveled north of the Mason-Dixon line since meeting Michigan in 1965 (geography purists may say the 2010 game at Folsom Field in Colorado is technically “north” of the MD Line, but we aren’t treating that line as a football end zone going around the earth), and no SEC team had traveled to Notre Dame since Tennessee in 2005.

Fans on both sides responded to this rare meeting, with Georgia supporters grabbing up tickets by the bunch, and Notre Dame fans and secondary ticket brokers cashing in, with an average asking price of over $1,100 per seat – the highest for any game of the 2017 season.

The allotted 8,000 Georgia tickets were eclipsed by a longshot, with Notre Dame stadium looking more like the annual split crowd at the Georgia-Florida Cocktail Party in Jacksonville. Reporters and journalists from all over the country marveled at the Bulldog Nation turnout, and reports of weekend long tailgate parties in South Bend were not at all exaggerated.

There were no reported fan fistfights or ugly confrontations. News reporters shot footage of fans in both Georgia and Notre Dame colors walking around campus, cheering and smiling at each other.

Her Loyal Sons helped show Georgia fans some of the standard stops in a trip to Notre Dame – the golden dome, touchdown Jesus and the grotto – and made them feel (mostly) at home.

While the Dawgs brought some SEC flavor to the midwest, and nobody seemed to mind.

During the game, alternating crowd cheers of “NOTRE-DAME” and “U-G-A” were heard, with neither side particularly drowning out the other…and the media ate it up. ESPN play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico sounded like a kid at Christmas, just soaking up the exuberance within the stadium.

The game itself? It wasn’t much to behold. A lot of punts. A lot of mistakes. A close game between two programs who are still turning the corner. Georgia owned, and now still owns, the only winning record for an SEC team against the Irish.

But none of that mattered. What mattered was the pageantry and mystique of Notre Dame Stadium and a visiting team who had never experienced any of it. What mattered was a contingent of red-and-black adorned fans so large, a Notre Dame usher proclaimed it the largest visiting crowd to greet an away team he’d ever seen, per ESPN.

Georgia fans invaded Wrigley Field in Chicago the day prior to the Bulldogs game against the Irish. They took over the bar where Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly hosts his weekly radio show. It was a weekend of sports and sights for everyone from the Peach State in attendance.

The only thing missing? Georgia’s beloved English bulldog mascot, Uga, who was not allowed to make the trip due to Notre Dame’s “no pet” policy inside the stadium. Even that didn’t seem to anger visiting fans. They came for the party, and to see their Bulldogs shake down some 1980 thunder once again.

Yes, Notre Dame and its fans will continue to circle dates against teams like USC, Navy and Boston College, while the Bulldog Nation will always have a little extra hate in their hearts for the likes of Florida, Auburn and Georgia Tech.

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But this was something special, something fun, something undeniably collegiate, and hopefully it wasn’t just lightning in a bottle. This was college football at its most visible and very best. Please give us more of this. College football is better because of games like this.