UGA students turn Athens into a party on National Championship day

ATHENS, Ga. — University of Georgia students who couldn't make it to Atlanta are at the next best spot to be for Monday's National Championship game: Athens, the home of UGA, of course.

"Probably go up to North Campus and ring the bell and hang out with the rest of the students."
"Probably downtown. Definitely, actually, downtown," said student Jack Chambers.

No matter where students and other UGA fans plan to watch the championship game, Athens-Clarke County police tell Channel 2 Action News they are prepared to make sure there are no problems.

"We just wanna make sure that we have enough staffing to ensure that everyone has a fun time but at the same time everyone has a safe time," said Epifanio Rodriguez with the Athens-Clark County Police Department.

Officers are expecting one of the busiest nights they've seen in a while, especially for a Monday.

"School is back in session so we're gonna have the contingency of students who are gonna be on UGA property plus people who live here in Athens and the outskirts of Athens who may be coming into the downtown area to watch the football game," Rodriguez said.

Police said they have a specific security plan for game night. They don't want to jeopardize it by giving details, but we know it includes more officers on patrol.

The department will also work in unison with UGA police for any on-campus issues. The bottom line: Police said they're well prepared, so don't expect any problems.

"We know who our fans are, and we know our students and we think this you know, we were expecting a UGA win, we expect that our students and our residents here are gonna have a good time and celebrate properly and accordingly and that everything will just be fine and we won't have any issues," Rodriguez said.

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