Alabama and Georgia have met on the football field 67 times. They've played in six different cities over 12 decades and three centuries. They've never played outside the states of Alabama and Georgia or in the month of January. And — above all — they've never played for a national championship. Until Monday.
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Their first matchup was in 1895 at Wildwood Park in Columbus, Ga., one of only two games in the series played in Columbus (1912) and the only one ever played at Wildwood Park, which still exists today as Lakebottom Park and Weracoba Park just a couple miles northeast of downtown Columbus.
Georgia's 24-point win in 1895 was their first of 25 victories in a series they trail 38-25-4. The Bulldogs have never won more than five games in a row (1910-1916) and have won at least three in a row only once since 1916 (2002-07). Alabama, however, owns four winning streaks of at least five games, including a six-game streak from 1949-54.
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The final game of that run was played in Birmingham, Ala., which — despite not hosting a game since 1984 (the only one since 1962) — still has hosted the most games in the series, 26. Athens, Ga., has hosted 20 times, while Tuscaloosa, Ala., has hosted nine times.
Their meeting in Monday's title game will be the seventh game Atlanta has hosted. Four games were played in Montgomery, Ala., between 1901-23 and two in Columbus.
Alabama won the most recent Atlanta game, the 2012 SEC Championship, 32-28, one of 22 one-score games. It was the first game played in Atlanta since 1942 and the Crimson Tide's win tied the Atlanta series record at 3-3. It was also the second win in a current three-game winning streak for the Tide, who beat Georgia in Athens in both 2008 and 2015.
While Monday will be the first time they play for a national championship, a berth in the BCS National Championship was at stake in the 2012 meeting, which was also the first game played later than Nov. 4 since 1930 (Nov. 27).
The Alabama-Georgia series is already laced with history, but the 122-year-old semi-rivalry will reach a new level on Monday.
