If there were ever an argument to be made for why headliner home-and-home series are the best, look no further than Georgia-Notre Dame.

A couple years ago, we saw a sea of red and black invade South Bend in a way that few visiting fan bases ever have. It was a pilgrimage to one of college football’s most historic venues. It helped set the stage for an epic game that played a key role in the 2017 Playoff picture.

And now, well, this home-and-home is even better than it was a couple years ago.

We’ve got pettiness, but not necessarily from players in the rivalry (at least not from what I’ve seen). We’ve got grocery stores playing their part to fuel the rivalry.

In case you didn’t see this, Wes Blankenship tweeted out that Georgia grocery store “Dill’s Food City” posted on Facebook that it would be taking away Irish Spring body wash at its stores this week.

After all, the goal is to beat the Irish, not smell like the Irish:

A few things that I like about this.

One, I love the fact that someone thought to themselves, “wait a minute. It’s Notre Dame week. We can’t have our customers buying Irish spring body wash! That’s like submitting to the enemy!” I would have loved to have been in the room when that decision was made.

Oh, and who do you think got to print out that flyer? Context is key with something like that. If you’re going to deliberately sabotage your Irish Spring sales this week — which I’m sure were going to be off the charts — then you need to at least explain to the customer/make sure you go viral. That flyer, with a “Go Dawgs” above a Bulldog logo, gets the message across.

Here’s the other thing. Why just body wash? Why not just move all things that could possibly be associated with the Irish off the shelves? Ashley Espie tweeted me, it’s surprising that Dill’s didn’t take the Lucky Charms cereal away.

(My last name is “O’Gara” so this would be a devastating blow to a frequent user of Irish-based products like myself.)

Get rid of the potatoes, too. You want some baby reds? NOT NOTRE DAME WEEK. Feeling like polishing off one of those microwave safe mashed potato dishes that are “family sized?” NOT NOTRE DAME WEEK.

I’m sure Dill’s could swing it. We all have to make financial sacrifices this week. And if you’re making the financial sacrifice of attending this game, well, your pockets are deeper than mine.

Speaking of that … holy COW are those tickets expensive. I mean, I knew they were going to be through the roof based on how many Georgia fans traveled to Notre Dame in 2017. But I didn’t realize that tickets would be this crazy.

I reached out to our friends at at Vivid Seats and they delivered some astounding secondary market ticket price numbers for Saturday’s Week 4 showdown in Athens.

Most in-demand ticket of the weekend (based on median ticket price):

  1. Notre Dame at Georgia: $630
  2. Michigan at Wisconsin: $184
  3. Appalachian State at UNC: $183
  4. LSU at Vanderbilt: $160
  5. Auburn at Texas A&M: $146

Nobody is surprised that Notre Dame-Georgia is the most expensive ticket of the college football weekend. The face that it’s 3.5 times more expensive than the next-closest game which also involves top 15 teams (No. 11 Michigan at No. 13 Wisconsin) is insane.

In case you were wondering, I went over to Stubhub and tried to see the cheapest ticket for Saturday in Athens. As of Thursday afternoon, it was $323. You want to go sit in the Upper Level Sideline Section 333? Sure. That’ll be $3,336 … before taxes and fees.

But wait, there’s more!

Biggest non-bowl games of past 5 years (based on average price, sold ticket)

  1. 2017 SEC Championship: Georgia vs. Auburn, $784
  2. 2018 SEC Championship: Georgia vs. Alabama, $655
  3. Georgia at Notre Dame (2017), $619
  4. Notre Dame at Georgia (2019), $611
  5. 2017 Chick-fil-A Kickoff in Atlanta: Alabama vs. Florida State, $599

In other words, this ticket is going for nearly the same price as the 2017 Georgia-Notre Dame. And amazingly enough, the only true regular season game that came close to that was that 2017 Chick-fil-A Kickoff game, which was billed as “the greatest opener in college football history.”

Like that nonconference primetime showdown, it’ll be played in the state of Georgia, which has been home to some huge, huge, HUGE live events since 2013.

Biggest live events in Georgia since 2013 (based on average price, sold ticket)

  1. 2019 Super Bowl: Rams vs. Patriots, $4,325
  2. 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship: Georgia vs. Alabama, $2,321
  3. 2018 Masters (Sunday), $1,572
  4. 2017 SEC Championship: Georgia vs. Auburn, $784
  5. 2018 SEC Championship: Georgia vs. Alabama, $655
  6. Adele (State Farm Arena, 2016), $641
  7. Notre Dame at Georgia (2019), $611
  8. 2017 Chick-fil-A Kickoff in Atlanta: Alabama vs. Florida State, $599
  9. 2013 Final Four (Syracuse vs. Michigan; Wichita State vs. Louisville), $519

My biggest takeaway from that? Adele fans are crazy. I saw Beyoncé and Jay Z in Orlando at Camping World Stadium for a fraction of that price.

And, well, I guess Georgia fans have earned the right to be called “fanatics.” After all, 4 of those top 7 events involve the Dawgs. Why wouldn’t they? It’s not every day that Georgia plays in an SEC or national championship.

Shoot, Saturday’s game is even more rare than both of those occurrences. Per UGA’s research, Saturday will mark the first time since 1966 that Georgia hosted a pair of top 10 teams in a nonconference game. That’s wild.

There’s no doubt that the Sanford Stadium atmosphere is going to be off the charts. I can guarantee it’ll be unlike anything Notre Dame has ever seen, and it could even be unlike anything Georgia players have ever seen. Keep in mind that with neutral-site games like the Rose Bowl, SEC Championship and national championship, it’s also a neutral site crowd.

There will be nothing neutral about Saturday night in Athens. A raucous crowd took out a second mortgage to witness a pair of storied programs duking it out on a college campus.

Just as our college football founding fathers intended.