On the second Friday of September in 2021, a Mercer football team bus was heading on I-20 West out of Atlanta toward Birmingham on the way to play Alabama.

It passed a UAB bus on its way to play Georgia football in Athens.

“It’s kind of weird,” Mercer athletic director Jim Cole said. “We always go over to play Alabama, and UAB goes over to play Georgia. It doesn’t make sense.”

Georgia’s home opener Saturday is against Tennessee Tech, an FCS school like Mercer.

The Bulldogs haven’t played an in-state FBS or FCS opponent besides Georgia Tech under coach Kirby Smart and won’t this year. None of those in the state — including Georgia Southern, Georgia State and Kennesaw State — are on future schedules.

The last time Georgia faced a Group of Five or FCS opponent from the state was in 2015 in Mark Richt’s last season when Georgia Southern lost in overtime 23-17 in Athens.

Georgia and Georgia Southern played five times between 2000-2015.

UMass will play Georgia Nov. 23. It also played in Athens in 2018.

The Bulldogs have played Samford and UAB twice under Smart and also played Nicholls, Louisiana-Lafayette, Appalachian State, Austin Peay, Middle Tennessee, Murray State, Arkansas State, Charleston Southern, Kent State, UT Martin and Ball State.

Georgia isn’t afraid to schedule the big boys. It often plays a second Power Five conference opponent like Clemson last week.

Jared Benko, athletic director of Georgia Southern since March of 2020, said he reached out to UGA about playing a game in his first year or two on the job.

“The interest wasn’t reciprocated,” Benko said.

He touched base recently with new UGA assistant AD/football chief of staff Mark Robinson, who worked with Benko at Arkansas about scheduling a game in 2028.

“We’d love to play Georgia,” Benko said. “Right now there are so many unknowns (with future conference scheduling) it’s made it more difficult. … It takes two to tango. There’s coach involvement. There’s a lot of moving pieces. It’s not as simple as picking up the phone, but we’re always open to playing Georgia.”

Smart was asked Tuesday about why other in-state schools aren’t scheduled.

“Not the slighthest clue,” Smart said. “Can’t give you good input. The schedule I have now as far as I know I inherited it. If I didn’t inherit it, I’m lying to you. I didn’t go down the schedule and say, ooh, 'Let’s go play Tennessee Tech over Georgia Southern or Mercer.' I don’t know.”

Smart said that would probably be a better question for athletic director Josh Brooks.

"A lot of factors impact scheduling decisions," Brooks said in a statement. "It's a complex exercise with many considerations. We look forward to playing Georgia Tech every year, and we have great programs in our state, but we always try to do what's best for the University of Georgia."

Cole, Mercer’s AD since 2010, said the school has “casually reached out,” to Georgia about playing a game.

“I get a lot of offers from Michigan State, Michigan to fly in and play,” Cole said. “I always had a rule that I wanted it to be within five hours of Macon so my fans can enjoy a road trip.”

Mercer has played Ole Miss, North Carolina and went up against Auburn and Alabama multiple times.

“I really respect what Josh and Kirby have done,” Cole said. “I don’t think I’ve had much in dialogue after Greg (McGarity) left. That’s not Georgia’s fault. I don’t think I’ve pushed the issue.”

Smart coached under Nick Saban at Alabama, whose last game against an in-state team other than Auburn was Howard (now Samford) in 1944, according to Al.com.

Jacksonville State coach Rich Rodriguez this week said he’d jump at the chance to take his team to play Alabama.

“If they want to pay me $2 million, I’ll be down there on Saturday and Sunday, I’ll play them twice and help our budget,” Rodriguez said, according to Al.com. “They can beat our brains in for a couple million dollars, for sure.

Mercer will play Alabama this season on Nov. 16, and the school has a game lined up at Auburn next season. Georgia Southern has future games against Southern Cal, Clemson, Kansas State, Kentucky and Ole Miss.

Playing a Kennesaw State or a Georgia State might seem like a Super Bowl of sorts for those schools.

Georgia State athletic director Charlie Cobb said through a spokesperson the school has never had conversations with Georgia in his time as AD. Kennesaw State athletic director Milton Overton did not respond to an email on the subject.

With the SEC possibly going to nine conference games, there may be less opportunity for games against FCS and Group of Five schools.

A school like Mercer, with an athletics budget of $28 million, gets in the range of $500,000 for a game against a Power 4 school. Georgia is paying Tennessee Tech $550,000.

“That’s what this is about,” Tennessee Tech coach Bobby Wilder said Tuesday. “It’s about paying bills in the athletic department. … I think Georgia’s collective is $20 million. Our athletic department budget is $17 million. That’s the gap now.”

Georgia has future FCS games scheduled against Austin Peay, Florida A&M and Western Carolina and Group of Five games against Marshall, Charlotte and Western Kentucky.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp was at the Georgia game in Mercedes-Benz Stadium against Clemson in a UGA shirt and changed to do the coin toss for Georgia Tech’s home game against Georgia State.

Cole, a member of the Georgia House of Representatives from 2004-2010, said he ran across a non-binding resolution in the 1980s from the Georgia state legislature encouraging Georgia and Mercer to play in basketball.

Benko mentioned a North Carolina bill that was proposed that would have required North Carolina and N.C. State to play Group of Five schools. He said he would welcome similar legislation aimed at encouraging schools within Georgia to play football against each other.

“Why spend money to teams out of state,” he said, “when you can keep it in state?”

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: UGA football turns to out of state Group of Five, FCS schools on schedule