I keep trying to walk away from the Greg McGarity vs. the new NCAA recruiting rules story, but he keeps pulling me back in. Does anybody really think this is what’s keeping him up at night?
“We have the resources, to a certain level,” McGarity said. “But what level is that? The rule would let each institution make that decision. But for the good of the game, if you take a step back, our institution, and what’s for the best for college athletics in general, then basically with the approval of this legislation you would be furthering the separation of the haves and haves not. And right now you would say there are probably 22 haves, and the rest of the programs in the country operate in the red already. I don’t think that’s good for the whole.”
I mean, if he’s that concerned about the programs not operating in the black, perhaps he’s willing to consider some form of revenue sharing… Riiiiight.
This isn’t about not sticking it to the little guy further. It’s about Alabama and other SEC schools making Georgia spend money McGarity doesn’t want to spend.
(As a side note for those of you who don’t think Mark Richt has learned from experience to read which way the winds blow at Butts-Mehre, you might want to check out this interview.)
Get The Picture 
McGarity was a good Assistant AD. He is proving to be a mediocre-to-poor head man.
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McGarity is just another yes-man for the President and Board of Regents to tell what to do. Just like Evans was.
Dooley was just as profit focused (i.e. cheap), which the President and Board liked, but he wasn’t a total yes-man.
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At Georgia, it’s not about winning, it’s about how much money can be funneled into non-athletic endeavors.
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I don’t know how Foley spends money but I assume they are pretty profitable as well, so I am a bit surprised at GM’s “cheapness” coming from Florida. I guess its a bit of “well we were 5 yards short” being so cheap so why change stuff… but I don’t think we should just be sitting around either. I hope they are at least preparing for the new rules to not be rescinded.
And as an aside, is there a phrase CMR loves more than “I’ll just say this…”?
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It replaces the I’ll take”We’re blessed…” for $100 category, which coincidentally started falling into disuse after the Gulf of Tarkenton Attack
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I get the frustration with McGarity and frankly it does ring pretty hollow with me. Although I imagine the next round of hand-wringing if the de-regulated state of enforcement remains will be from the haves that run themselves out of business by spending inefficiently. It’s kind of like the NBA owners a few years ago who demanded lower player salaries to keep themselves in business. You know, even though the owners were the idiots handing out $70M contracts to the likes of Jalen Rose and bankrupting themselves.
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Does he really believe (or is it even true) that there are only 22 “haves” in college athletics?
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I think that’s the # du jour of programs operating in the black.
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Everybody has a boss including AD GMc. What we would like to see is an AD that puts up a fight even if he is told no by his bosses. As long as he does not, we will continue to wonder about these things. While we wait to see where these rules will settle, Bama forges on because their boss is football.
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SOS makes some good points. Unlimited contact with a kid is just nuts.
And I’m glad that UGA’s boss is not football. It’s damn important for sure, but it’s not the reason for UGA.
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“but it’s not the reason for UGA”
But it IS the reason our Athletic Department exists. If McGarity wants to manage athletics for the “good of the game” he should take a job in the Patriot Conference. That massive budget and all the problems associated are a result of football.
I’d rather our AD’s motto be “Just win baby”.
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I believe McGarity is on the right side of the recruiting deregulation issue and I support his efforts.
However, given the current regulatory situation with the NCAA and the conferences, he should also have a plan “B” ready to go if the regulatory changes go in as is.
If he doesn’t, the top AND bottom line will shrink no matter how many pennies we pinch.
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Re the 22 comment…I found this comment on a website..
Only 22 programs were profitable in 2010-11 net of subsidies. Nine of them were in the SEC, with only Auburn (loss of $822,383) and Ole Miss (loss of $1,589,324) taking hits. Seven were in the Big Ten, five were in the Big 12, and one (Oregon, thanks Phil Knight!) was in the Pac-10. Not a single ACC or Big East program was above water without subsidies.
http://www.teamspeedkills.com/2012/5/15/3021940/chart-revenues-profits-college-athletics
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Whatever the rules are, everybody must play by them. Bama is doing whatever they need to to take advantage of the current rules. UGA must (legally) do the same. “Consultants” for special teams, recruiting, etc. should be utilized.
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That’s not the Georgia way. The Georgia way is to stand on an imagined moral high ground and beat your chest while trying to keep as many dollars in your pocket as possible, all while nobody pays any attention to you.
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…and beating the ever-loving **** out of Tech.
Don’t forget that part.
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Well yeah, that’s a given.
But I don’t think beating Tech is a big deal.
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Should read “to do to”
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“22 haves, and the rest of the programs in the country operate in the red already. I don’t think that’s good for the whole.”
Shorter Greg*: “Austerity, Bitches!”
Shorter Greg 1st Runner-up: “You complete me.”
Shorter Greg 2nd Runner-up: “These people crawled out of the sewer Mr. Ward, maybe the gutter is where we should be.” — Gene Hackman to William Dafoe in Is Our Mississippi Burning (soon to be adapted by the Are the Plains Burning? investigative Bob Woodwards as screenplay for “Is Laramie Burning? Where the **** Did that Blind Side of Beef Come From?” starring Bugs Bunny, Sandra Bullock, Dick Cheney and Nick .
* http://farm1.static.flickr.com/28/42664148_ff49381a17_o.gif
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When deregulation actually become regulation?
Instead of creating rules, why not let the recruit determine how much correspondence is sufficient? Some may hate it while others may need it. We’re obviously not a school that is going to participate in the arena and that’s fine. But money talks and it should. That’s the essence of free enterprise.
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You’re wanting high school kids to dictate to grown adults what is appropriate. Grown adults who have millions of dollars at stake.
I couldn’t disagree more.
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Scheduling cupcakes = not good for the whole, but necessary to win championships.
Spending more money = not good for the whole, end statement.
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What is this phantom unspoken reason for Mac to worry about if it isn’t about deregulation of recruiting communications? Sorry, I don’t go for previous enuendos about his pains with spending. I believe his worry is genuine concerning his responsibilities when riding herd on all campus athletics and he watches the budget like a hawk, but that can’t sell me on the idea he is taking this deregulating stance because he is the King of Pusillanimity.
The Arms Race couldn’t hold a candle to expenses idiots are willing for their coaches to go to in order to win the Recruiting Race (RR). The top 20 teams would burn each other out soon, the regulations would be redrawn to what the ADs seem to want taking place right now. Mac admits he and the other ADs dropped the ball by not following closely what the NCAA was doing before they passed these sweeping deregulatory moves and he plus most other ADs are righting the ship by overriding those poorly thought out parts passed by the NCAA. But to think those AD actions now have a part insincere, part stingy, part there-must-be-a-conspiracy-here-somewhere reasoning (other than what has been given) is a reach.
What DO you think is keeping McGarity up at night, Senator?
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Regulation on this is pointless. Yes, it will lead to excesses and absurdities, but we already have those in abundance. It’s just exchanging one set of absurdities for another. Just because we’ve become used to one set doesn’t make them any less absurd.
People find ways around NCAA rules on communicating with recruits all the time. That part of the NCAA rulebook is part dog-chasing-its-tail, part closing-the-door-after-the-cows-have-already-left-the-barn. What’s the point?
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