NAIA to keep football title game in Georgia through 2015

ROME -- The NAIA says its national football championship game will continue to be played in Rome through 2015.

The game has been played in Rome since 2008. The city and the NAIA announced the five-year extension on Tuesday.

Following the inaugural event in 2008, a game muddied by heavy rains, the NAIA expressed a strong desire to play the game on artificial turf.

In November 2009, voters passed a $42.3 million special purpose, local option sales tax package that included more than $3 million for stadium improvements and AstroTurf.

This year's game will be played on Dec. 18.