UGA Blogs

Bulldogs pull out impressive 70-68 overtime win over No. 20 Miss. State

UGA Sports Blog (ajc.com) - Sat, 02/11/2012 - 17:59

Pretty impressive win by Georgia on Saturday. The Bulldogs went to Starkville and took down No. 20 Mississippi State. The Maroon Dogs are, in my opinion, one of the best-built teams in the SEC south of Kentucky. So I certainly wasn’t expecting Georgia’s first SEC road win to come there.

In case you missed the telecast, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope hit a late 3-pointer in overtime and finished with 20 points to lead the Bulldogs to the 70-68 victory. Gerald Robinson’s bucket sent the game into the extra period.

Following was the AP burst. Wanted to give folks a chance to comment. . . .

STARKVILLE, Miss. — Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored 20 points, including a crucial 3-pointer late in overtime, and Georgia beat No. 20 Mississippi State 70-68 on Saturday.

Georgia (12-12, 3-7) earned its first Southeastern Conference road win this season and only its second road victory overall. Gerald Robinson Jr. added 13 points, including eight in overtime. Dustin Ware had 11.

Mississippi State …

Categories: UGA Blogs

Don’t you have, like, a school or something to run?

Get the Picture - Sat, 02/11/2012 - 10:38

Nothing like another university president showing his ass over the football postseason:

Arizona State University’s president is calling for the end of college football’s Bowl Championship Series, pushing for an eight-team playoff that would leave the best teams out of the Fiesta Bowl and other BCS games.

Michael Crow appears to be one of the first presidents from a major university to publicly denounce the current system, which guarantees large annual payouts…

That’s bound to be a popular approach.

All you need to know about the man’s attachment to reality can be summarized in one sentence.

Crow said the current BCS system places too much emphasis on money and not the student-athlete.

What a profound revelation.  Perhaps he should clue his own conference commissioner, who’s pumping for a new, long-term TV deal for the BCS, in.  And while he’s at it, he might want to share his thoughts with the NCAA, as it’s currently pondering reducing the scope of the already less-than-whopping $2000 stipend proposed by Mark Emmert.

Categories: UGA Blogs

Every day, every day, every day Corch writes the book.

Get the Picture - Sat, 02/11/2012 - 10:11

And you can feel that next chapter coming on.

“I was very angry that would even be brought up, and there were fellow Big Ten coaches who were angry as well. And the commissioner was very angry, so there was a lot of…to have that make the presses, especially when it’s inaccurate, legally you’re not allowed to do that. That’s slander. To use someone’s name in terms like that is very wrong, but we moved on.”

Yeah, right.

Friendly word of advice for Bret Bielema:  the next time you face the Buckeyes, you might want to keep an eye on how they’re managing their second half timeouts.

Categories: UGA Blogs

Georgia perspective on 8 vs. 9 conference games

Dawgsonline - Fri, 02/10/2012 - 17:32

Greg McGarity’s ridiculous defense of the 8-game conference schedule was unfortunate. We know that money is driving expansion and realignment, and those changes will have implications in the schedule. McGarity could have just put it out there: we like home games. Home games mean additional revenue and often mean wins. A ninth conference game comes at the expense of a home game, will spread additional losses around the league, and will require some tough scheduling choices that could impact revenue.

It needn’t be more complicated than what Auburn’s Jay Jacobs says. The current schedule is working, and there will have to be a significant financial incentive to deal with the risks and costs. Those incentives will determine whether the conference slate can be expanded to accomodate expansion or whether the new teams will be shoehorned into the current 8-game format.

But more conference games are better, right?

As fans, we’d much rather see another conference game instead of a cupcake game. Of course we’d also schedule like a video game and make our custom conference that goes from playing LSU to Ohio State to Oregon and back for the WLOCP. I’d like a ninth game if only because I believe that membership in a conference should have some meaning beyond revenue-sharing (silly me!), and that means playing the other members as often as possible. But the additional game comes with some big considerations.

• You lose a home game every other year. That means five conference road games in some years. Georgia is currently committed to a neutral site game every year and a road nonconference game every other year. Georgia would have to do some creative scheduling gymnastics to get more than six home games in a year. Once you’re used to seven home games, taking one away can be painful.
• Seven SEC teams will have an additional loss. Actual math! We can assume that most of those losses will be shared among the lower half of the league, but that extra loss could mean the difference in bowl eligibility for a team or two. At a higher level, it could cause the league to lose that second BCS bid now and then. The amount of money at stake is not a hard, quantifiable number and would vary from year to year, but it does introduce an element of risk in the SEC’s finances.

The pressure for a ninth game is more likely to come from the conference than any individual school. Schools like the extra cash from more home games, and they like the scheduling flexibility to chase a bowl bid or remain in the national picture. The conference has to pursue more money from the broadcasting rights in order to make the finances of expansion work. In exchange for those additional dollars, the networks will demand a larger inventory of games, and there’s your push for a ninth game. The conference will have to sell the schools that the additional money they’d receive from the networks would more than cover the expenses of fewer home games and the risk of diminished revenue from lost bowl or BCS bids.

What are Georgia’s options with an 8-game SEC schedule

• Play the six division opponents, play a permanent West opponent, and rotate the remainder of the rest. This schedule maintains the current permanent opponent, but it will take over a decade to rotate through the rest of the West.
• Drop the permanent opponent and rotate two West opponents each year. This schedule maintains the current rotation, but it eliminates the permanent opponent (Auburn).

Personally, I’m fine with the first option. Playing Auburn is an important part of Georgia’s identity as a program. I can live with fewer trips to Starkville and most of the other destinations in the West. We’ll pour one out for Baton Rouge, but no one said this process would be without sacrifice. If the conference can accept some flexibility, I like Clay Travis’s idea giving teams the right to opt out of the permanent opponent. Not a bad idea if you can get past the certain cries of unbalanced schedules.

What are Georgia’s options with a 9-game SEC schedule

Here the focus changes to the out-of-conference schedule. The 9-game schedule allows for the current permanent opponent plus two-team interdivisional rotation to continue. The loss of a home game every other year has to be accounted for (not to mention the possibility of an additional loss). You’ll see the counterbalance come in the quality of the nonconference schedule. At the least, those two games must be home games. Georgia can just about kiss goodbye the idea of a home-and-home nonconference series.

Would moving the Florida game to campus help?

In terms of the raw scheduling logistics, yes. But since our focus is on money, Georgia and Florida will likely fight to keep this a neutral-site game as long as possible. When we covered last May the coming increases to GA-FL ticket prices, we noted that the two-year haul for Georgia could be as high as $7 million by 2017. No way can either school make $7 million from the game over two years in a home-and-home arrangement.

Touching the third rail here, but what about Tech?

Yes – Georgia already has a permanent home-and-home nonconference deal. We’ve seen conference realignment wreck other longstanding series – Texas-Texas A&M, Kansas-Missouri, and even South Carolina and Clemson have looked at legislative options for protecting their annual meeting. Could it happen to Georgia and Georgia Tech? It would certainly free up wiggle room in Georgia’s nonconference schedule and allow for the occasional home-and-home.

Is it a good idea? Not to me. Even moreso than Auburn, playing Georgia Tech is what Georgia does. Control of the state is fought for and renewed annually. It would not be a good thing for Tech to exist and maybe even build its brand in some shadow parallel universe next to Georgia. The annual meeting is essential to Georgia’s standing in the state.

Categories: UGA Blogs

Hoops update

Dawgsonline - Fri, 02/10/2012 - 17:24

Men

At this point in the season it’s pretty clear that, barring another improbable SEC Tournament run, the postseason isn’t in the future for this Georgia basketball team. They’re left to build for the future, get what wins they can, and maybe even play spoiler.

The spoiler role is exactly what fell into Georgia’s lap on Wednesday against Arkansas. Georgia was fed up with losing and looked for a fight. The Hogs were about as good of a matchup as Georgia could have asked for. Like the Dawgs, Arkansas is a guard-dominated team without a strong inside presence. They don’t rebound well, and they struggle on the road. We knew all that, but was Georgia in any kind of position to do anything about it?

Georgia’s start, and particularly the start of Robinson, showed that they were. Robinson and KCP hit from outside early, and Robinson’s shooting and driving soon opened things up inside. Nemi, Thornton, and Williams were able to be active inside as the Georgia perimeter game drew plenty of attention. Georgia’s offense was helped by their work on the other end – Arkansas’ struggles on offense meant that the Hogs couldn’t set up their press. That made it easier for Georgia to work the ball quickly up the court where they could set up in the halfcourt offense and attack Arkansas’ weaknesses.

Arkansas has had some bright moments this year with high-profile wins over teams like Michigan and Vanderbilt. Their road record is the glaring weakness now, and they missed out on what might be their best chance for a road conference win. Unfortunately for the Hogs, they don’t play the NCAA Tournament in Fayetteville. And Georgia is pretty much the definition of a “bad loss” right now.

This was Georgia at their best, and it was the blueprint for what Georgia would have to be almost every night for the team to have much success this year. The shots haven’t always fallen that way for the guards, and that’s led to some tough nights. Other teams like Ole Miss have had the inside presence to control the boards and turn Georgia into a stagnant jump-shooting team. The Dawgs won’t find many more matchups as favorable as they did Wednesday, but anything can happen if the guards are bringing it like that.

Georgia won’t have many chances left to play the spoiler; there are only three home games left on the schedule. A home date in a couple of weeks against Vanderbilt looks like the best shot. Georgia still needs three wins to match the 5–11 SEC record in Mark Fox’s first season in Athens. The Dawgs have a couple of winnable games against South Carolina remaining, and LSU could be a toss-up though it’s a road game.

Lady Dogs

Andy Landers’ squad is enjoying a bye week at the moment, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. This team is so banged up that substitution patterns are dictated by deciding who is less injured. Jasmine James and Krista Donald were the key injuries over the past few weeks. Just as James was ready to start working back in, Meredith Mitchell took a knee to the forehead and had to miss all but the first two minutes of the Alabama game. The plan had been to give James a few minutes of playing time to shake off the rust against Alabama, but Mitchell’s injury meant that James came right back off of her injury to play 32 minutes. She accepted the challenge and led the team with 18 points.

The Lady Dogs currently stand at 18-6, 7-4 in the SEC. They’re in 4th place, but a game either way could have them anywhere from 3rd to 8th place. As usual, there’s a pretty tightly-contested pack in the middle of the league. The good news is that Georgia has already run the Tennessee and Kentucky gauntlet. The not-so-good news is that four of the team’s final five games are against good teams fighting for position in that same pack of teams. It starts with a rematch against Vanderbilt this Sunday. Vandy has been hit or miss this year, but they used a blistering outside attack and a tough matchup zone to blow past Georgia in Nashville last month. Vandy is one of the hottest teams in the league at the moment and just knocked off Tennessee. Georgia should at least be as healthy coming off the bye week as they’ve been in over a month, and they’ll need every player during the last stretch.

Categories: UGA Blogs

Name that caption, old times edition

Get the Picture - Fri, 02/10/2012 - 15:55

Guess who’s filming an ESPN promo (h/t Radi Nabulsi)…

Dazzle us in the comments.

Categories: UGA Blogs

Craig James’ latest kiss of death

Get the Picture - Fri, 02/10/2012 - 15:28

Everyone’s favorite former ESPN commenter switches his Presidential endorsement from Rick Perry to Rick Santorum (maybe he’s just partial to Ricks).

If James wants to do his party a favor, he ought to endorse Obama.

Categories: UGA Blogs

Explain the Franklin/Vandy Love to Me

Georgia Sports Blog - Fri, 02/10/2012 - 09:54

The non-sense around James Franklin's "men of honor" quotes (or misquote, if you have any reason to believe him) continues.  We all know it was Kiffin level douchebaggery when he said it. Also, he knew exactly what he was saying, when he said it, and that he did so intentionally.  We all thought it interesting on the day he said it, since he had gotten one of those men to leave North Carolina after the kid began orientation.

Yeah, Larry Fedora isn't impressed:
“What does [Franklin] say about the kids that were committed elsewhere and de-committed from their places to go to his place? That’s my comment. What is his comment on those people? He’s got someone in his recruiting class that did that very thing. He’s saying those guys are not men of honor? Basically, he’s saying he has got kids in his own recruiting class that are not men of honor. He said that, and I didn’t.”Hey, I love me a good pissing contest.  My money is on the guy who is named after a hat, as opposed to an asshat. Blutarsky, as per usual, has a good take on that side of it.

My question is this: What about Franklin's actions suddenly make him some cult hero or actually make Vanderbilt a force to be reckoned with? Just talking to the casual Georgia (or SEC, for that matter) fan, you would think he signed a Top 10 class.  He did...Top 10 in the conference. Yes, they were more competitive than normal, but they beat no team with a winning record.  The closest they came was their game against Georgia.

Someone is going to have to explain to me why Franklin isn't Lane Kiffin, but with a lesser coaching pedigree. Is it because of his 'We aren't going to take it' attitude and the fact he wanted to fight Todd Grantham?

What I saw was a team that was undisciplined to the point of danger and that had the inability to close. Definitely sounds like Kiffin to me.

TD

Categories: UGA Blogs

James Franklin’s weasel words

Get the Picture - Fri, 02/10/2012 - 08:50

Every once in a while, the AJ-C‘s penchant for shit-stirring pays off.  Michael Carvell’s follow-up to James Franklin’s whining about Josh Dawson’s late switch to Georgia evidencing a lack of integrity is a must read, if only for the delicious response he gets out of Larry Fedora, who had a kid snatched out from under him by Franklin.

“What does [Franklin] say about the kids that were committed elsewhere and de-committed from their places to go to his place? That’s my comment. What is his comment on those people? He’s got someone in his recruiting class that did that very thing. He’s saying those guys are not men of honor? Basically, he’s saying he has got kids in his own recruiting class that are not men of honor. He said that, and I didn’t.”

Ooh.  I don’t think those guys will be exchanging cards this Christmas.

Read it all.  When Lane Kiffin comes off sounding better than Franklin does on the subject, you know you’ve got a winner.

Categories: UGA Blogs

The new NCAA rules and Richtball

Get the Picture - Fri, 02/10/2012 - 08:28

If you haven’t heard about the NCAA’s latest tinkering moves, you can get the details here.  The changes are being made in the name of safety, or so they tell us (Paul Johnson’s got to love the blocking below the waist clarification, but I doubt there are very many defensive linemen’s knees which share his joy), but I wonder how some of it plays out at Georgia, given the way we know Mark Richt likes to manage the game.

Here’s the key change:

The committee voted to move the kickoff to the 35-yard line (currently set at the 30-yard line), and to require that kicking team players must be no further than five yards from the 35 at the kick, which is intended to limit the running start kicking teams have during the play. The committee also voted to move the touchback distance on free kicks to the 25-yard line instead of the 20-yard line to encourage more touchbacks. NCAA data indicates injuries during kickoffs occur more often than in other phases of the game.

Actually, that’s three changes.  The kickoff line is being moved back to where it was before 2007, I believe.  I presume that’s to lead to more kickoffs being driven into the end zone for touchbacks.  And the move to the 25 for touchbacks, which is new, is an incentive for returners to take a knee.

But I can’t help but look at the risk/reward in play here – especially in light of the third leg, the five-yard rule – and think “directional kicking”.  Even though your coverage unit can’t get as big a head start at going full speed, they’ll still start out five yards closer to the return man.  Isn’t there a huge temptation to get your kicker to hang a kick high enough to try to get coverage in place, because any starting position inside the opponent’s 25-yard line will be an improvement?  There’s a bigger margin of error now in play that’s going to be tempting to some.

What do you guys think Richt will do on special teams in light of these changes?

Categories: UGA Blogs

When you put it that way…

Get the Picture - Fri, 02/10/2012 - 08:06

Matt Hinton finishes his suggestion list for how to put a plus-one together with this inspiring passage:

… And just as it’s about to grow from two teams to four, eventually that system will grow to six teams, then to eight, then to ten or twelve, the priorities and logistics expanding each time. At some point, it will probably be bigger and more inclusive than I’d like, and I’ll find myself leading the chorus of complaints about a “hot” team with three or four losses that never deserved to make the cut in the first place. At every point there will be teams on the wrong side of the cutoff that have a legitimate complaint about being left out. That will never change. But whatever the bracket looks like, and whatever the new complaints that come along with it, it’s still a step forward from the debacle that’s ruled the sport for the last 15 years.

I mean, who doesn’t feel his or her heart sing reading that?

I guess my problem is that I can’t sign on to the BCS hate the way many can.  It’s certainly got its warts (insert Auburn 2004 reference here) and can stand improvement, but “the debacle that’s ruled the sport for the last 15 years”?  At its lowest moment, the BCS has delivered something better than BYU, your 1984 national champion.  At least the Bowl Alliance and the BCS have moved the sport in the direction of a meaningful title game without screwing everything else up that we like about college football.  It’s not as if we’ve ever stopped caring.

Compare that with what we’re about to get now:  endless refinement of a theme, endless pursuit of that last postseason dollar that doesn’t impact the regular season revenue stream, endless bitching about the team that didn’t get in… all so that we can end up whining about the hot team winning the title.

I can’t wait.

Categories: UGA Blogs

Cupcakes über alles.

Get the Picture - Fri, 02/10/2012 - 07:42

I can’t say I like Jay Jacobs’ answer here, but at least he’s more honest about it than Greg McGarity:

(Do you favor an 8-game or 9-game SEC schedule?)

“My thoughts are eight games in the SEC, knowing we have a championship game, that’s enough. We’re the most competitive league in the nation, and playing those eight games has proven to be what is best for each institution and what is best for the SEC, if you gauge it by national championships won.”

(That being said, there’s plenty of incoherent bullshit in that interview, unless you really believe that Jacobs knew when he hired Chizik that Auburn’s next two recruiting classes were going to fall by the wayside as they have.  Oh, yeah, and Brian VanGorder was Chizik’s first choice all along, even though “… we didn’t know that Brian was going to be an option.”  Whatever.)

Categories: UGA Blogs

Friday morning buffet

Get the Picture - Fri, 02/10/2012 - 07:15

Some traditions soldier on.

• When one door closes on a Samoan lineman, another opens for one.
• Mark Emmert’s tough new enforcement regime sees the light of day today.  Can’t wait to see how that goes over with the membership.
• “… black college quarterbacks are not viewed as positively as white quarterbacks for their leadership on the football field, according to research published in the December 2011 issue of the Academy of Management Journal.”
• More “I blame Bobo” for you.
• Only eighteen schools have been able to keep the same nine assistant coaches on staff since the end of the season.
• Ed Kilgore explores Craig James’ negative media problems.
• Chris Sanders is on his way to Georgia Military College.
• Finally, something Nick Saban didn’t get his way on:  “I talked to my dear friend Nick Saban about that, and, like me, he said, ‘I would like West Virginia in the SEC,’ and we were working toward that.”
• No doubt Jimmy Williamson is taking notes on this.
• Georgia’s secondary this season may be thin but it’s talented.

Categories: UGA Blogs

Who is McGarity Talking to?

Georgia Sports Blog - Thu, 02/09/2012 - 15:10

The buzz today mostly centers around McGarity's comments last night which alluded to the possibility that Georgia might not play Auburn every year going forward.  My question...who is that message really aimed at?  McGarity doesn't make that comment on the record to the Athletic Board without having a bigger audience in mind.

There are really only two possibilities:
1.  ESPN/CBS as the Target -- The SEC wants a major bump in revenues from ESPN/CBS in broadcasting rights.  To get that bump, given that we expanded without a specific monetary promise of greater revenue* from our TV partners, they need some sort of leverage.  The idea that the SEC desperately wants to avoid a 9 game schedule could be little more than a negotiating ploy.  "We're so willing to avoid an 9 game schedule, that we would be willing to give up UGA vs. AU and Bama vs. UT to stay where we are....unless you made us one hell of an offer."  So...you leak our fear that the AU series would be lost due to the emphasis we're placing on the 8 game schedule.

2.  The Fans -- This could be McGarity's way of bracing us for the worst in hopes that whatever solution we ultimately end up with is better than the tradition killing loss of the yearly AU series.

Personally, I think the ADs and Presidents care more about money than:
-- Making fans happy
-- Making coaches happy
-- Making players happy
-- Making faculty happy
-- Making TV partners happy

And there is more money in a 9 game SEC schedule than an 8 game SEC schedule.  A better inventory of TV games means more dollars from TV.  Plus, this is a competitive market. The ACC and Big XII both have a 9 game league schedule going forward while the Big Ten and Pac 14 have scheduled a cross conference competition every year to act as a defacto 9th league game for the Big Ten and potentially the same for the Pac 14.

Therefore, my thought is to follow the money on this one.  If we're not going "all in" with greed vs. the best interest of the fan, coaches or players, then no one is going to be happy and no objective will be met fully.  So...assume we're all in with greed.  Everything else suggests that is the case.

PWD


*I think we can all agree that it was dumb to make such a move without a greater revenue guarantee on the front end.

Categories: UGA Blogs

Two hot topics from UGA Athletic Board meeting

UGA Sports Blog (ajc.com) - Thu, 02/09/2012 - 12:08

If you missed it -– and if you did here’s the story -– there was a pretty interesting meeting of the UGA Athletic Association board of directors yesterday at Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall.

The board got another upbeat financial report and voted to spend almost $4 million on several facilities projects (details in story), but the two topics that might interest you the most pertained to Mark Richt’s contract extension and a college football playoff.

UGA President Michael Adams pronounced the parties “in 98 percent agreement” on Richt’s contract extension and said the remaining 2 percent “is just minor details.” Adams said the executive committee of the athletic board could reconvene by teleconference to approve the deal when it is done.

As for a playoff, Adams added to the recent indications that momentum is finally building toward one, telling the executive committee: “My best guess is we’re going to end up with either a four- or eight-team playoff by the time we get to ‘14.” …

Categories: UGA Blogs

In Other News

Georgia Sports Blog - Thu, 02/09/2012 - 09:20

Men's Golf and baseball just got a little less deep:

• Closer Tyler Maloof will be out for at least a month with a muscle strain in his arm. Maloof tied the single season save record last year, but had a big ERA. We were looking to have him get stronger in close situations. Now we might not have him available until well into the SEC schedule. Blake Dieterich and Bryan Benzor are the top candidates to get the ball for now.
• Bryden Macpherson has decided to withdraw from school and take up golf as a profession. Macpherson qualified for The Masters with a win in last year's British Amateur Open. Macpherson was the SEC Freshman of the year and a big part of our National Championship runner up finish last year. I expect to hear some muffled 'Go Dawgs' when he tees it up in Augusta.

Categories: UGA Blogs

SEC Hoops Power Poll - Week of February 5th

Georgia Sports Blog - Thu, 02/09/2012 - 08:52

1. Kentucky Wildcats 96
2. Florida Gators 88
3. Mississippi St. Bulldogs 76
4. Vanderbilt Commodores 75
5. Alabama Crimson Tide 62
6. Arkansas Razorbacks 55
7. Mississippi Rebels 49
8. LSU Tigers 37
9. Tennessee Volunteers 37
10. Auburn Tigers 24
11. South Carolina Gamecocks 13
12. Georgia Bulldogs 11

No surprise Georgia is at the bottom (we voted Monday night before last night's pwning of Arkansas).

TD

Categories: UGA Blogs

Well, That Happened: Georgia Dominates Arkansas

Georgia Sports Blog - Thu, 02/09/2012 - 08:50

Gerald Robinson doing his thing
(AP Photo/The Athens Banner-Herald, AJ Reynolds) You know, after getting my hopes up and having them dashed against the rocks of cruel realism, last night was salve for my basketball soul.  Georgia so thoroughly dominated Arkansas that it felt like we were winning by more than 20 the entire second half.

We've been down this road before: play well in the first half, come out flat in the second half.  Didn't happen this time. I'm not sure what Mark Fox said to his team after getting the very quick double technical in Knoxville, but he needs to write it down. Make some posters and sell them to Successories.

The technical details? Robinson played with the confidence he has shown at time, but hasn't captured for a whole game. The front court dominated the boards and didn't play weak when the ball was shot.  Our offense was consistent and well run. We out rebounded Arkansas, we out hustled Arkansas, we out defended Arkansas. Marcus Thornton showed the promise of the strong front court player we signed. Neme showed his defensive performance against Alabama wasn't a mirage (plus he drained two beautiful threes, hello European basketball). It was 40 minutes of hell, but for the wrong reasons for the Hogs.

The Hogs are a middle of the road SEC team. Until last night, they were a tournament bubble team. Last night put them squarely in next four out territory. You don't lose to a team that has played such bad basketball by 20 and make the NCAA tournament.

For one night, one glorious night, Georgia played a full game of good basketball. It might have been fools gold, but it sure glitters right now.
TD

Categories: UGA Blogs

We didn’t ask for this, fellas.

Get the Picture - Thu, 02/09/2012 - 07:38

I guess this is my day to crap all over Greg McGarity, but really, I can’t let this comment pass.

“I think if you ask Alabama and Tennessee, like us and Auburn, we’d like to retain the games,” McGarity said. “But does that work? What do the other 10 schools think? Those four schools like having those games but there’s no other East-West match-up that has that piece of history to it. So I don’t where that fits in.”

He said athletic directors will study “numerous models” when they meet.

“With 14 teams, not everybody will be happy,” he said. “Some will have a problem with everything. But we’ll make decisions based on the best situation of the league.”

In case you missed it, fans, the man just gave you the finger.

Let’s make sure you understand the context of that quote.  The SEC was doing fine and dandy with a twelve-team arrangement.  Nobody – at least if by “nobody”, you’re referring to the people who actually spend the money to watch the games – was screaming for the conference to get bigger.  Expansion has happened because people like Mike Slive and Michael Adams have seen their peers in other conferences swinging bigger dicks with their broadcast contracts and aren’t happy about that.

And now that they’ve made a mess of the schedule, they’ve got to decide who takes the hit, the fans or “the league”.  Yeah, like that’s a tough choice.

I’ve been a passionate college football fan for most of my life.  I’ve blogged about my passion for more than five years now.  But it’s gradually dawning on me that the people running the show are bound and determined to suck every drop of joy I get out of it.  Step by step it’s happening before our eyes.  College football is turning itself into NFL-lite.  History and tradition aren’t money makers and thus are to be cast aside when they become nothing more than an inconvenience for those who see 90,000 people in the stands on a Saturday as little more than a bunch of wallets.

I’ll stick around for now, because they haven’t killed it yet.  But I don’t trust these guys farther than I can throw ‘em and you shouldn’t either.  Don’t expect things to turn out well, because they don’t have your best interests at heart.  I’m not sure if they ever did.  They’re just more open about it now.

******************************************************************************

UPDATE:  Paul suggests McGarity may have one of two target audiences in mind, the fans and…

ESPN/CBS as the Target — The SEC wants a major bump in revenues from ESPN/CBS in broadcasting rights.  To get that bump, given that we expanded without a specific monetary promise of greater revenue* from our TV partners, they need some sort of leverage.  The idea that the SEC desperately wants to avoid a 9 game schedule could be little more than a negotiating ploy.  “We’re so willing to avoid an 9 game schedule, that we would be willing to give up UGA vs. AU and Bama vs. UT to stay where we are….unless you made us one hell of an offer.”  So…you leak our fear that the AU series would be lost due to the emphasis we’re placing on the 8 game schedule.

Eh, maybe.  But I don’t get why the supposedly preeminent football conference would have to negotiate so publicly and shrilly in order to get its way.  If you’re trying to brace the fans over what you’re about to do, though…

Categories: UGA Blogs

How stupid does he think we are?, Part Two

Get the Picture - Thu, 02/09/2012 - 07:13

I may not be sure that Mike Slive is insulting our intelligence with his coy act, but I’ve got no doubt Greg McGarity is with what has to be the lamest excuse you’ll ever hear as to why the SEC is resisting a move to a nine-game conference schedule:

“Nine games, and Georgia Tech, that makes 10 games,” McGarity said. “If you ever wanted to schedule Clemson or Ohio State, like we have, then that only leaves one guarantee game. That’s a pretty tough schedule. Fans would love it. But I don’t know if your coaches or players (would). That’s strapping it up 11 of 12 weeks there. You have to have some time where some players play who never get a chance to be on the field.

That’s why you schedule some of the I-AAs, and some of the other games, to let some of those kids grow, let those kids get their experience.”  [Emphasis added.]

They need that fourth game for third stringers and walk-ons.  That’s the noble cause McGarity is hitching his wagon to.

My mind is truly boggled.

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