Grab a plate and go, folks.
- ESPN’s Pac-10 blogger speculates that the rumors of six Big XII teams getting offers from the Pac-10 may simply be leverage to get Missouri and Nebraska to give up on a move to the Big Ten and settle for the broadcast joint venture between the two conferences that was discussed last month. Makes as much sense as anything else I’ve read at this point.
- David Hale can’t figure out why Mark Richt keeps bringing up the Todd Grantham hiring story. Me neither.
- It never would have occurred to me to ask this question.
- Maybe Aaron Murray’s lack of experience will have an impact on Georgia’s summer workouts.
- Good post at Leather Helmet Blog about multimedia rights and what’s being paid for them.
- Interesting data at Tomahawk Nation about which schools generate more TV interest in bowl games, relatively speaking. (The top ranked SEC school over the last eight years ranks eighteenth, and is your Georgia Bulldogs.)
- Noted UF and Spurrier worshiper Pat Dooley looks over SEC hot seats and doesn’t find Mark Richt occupying one. It’s a trend, I tells ‘ya!
Get The Picture 
In regards to Wooden: do you think he had to endure a lot of “hot seat” talk during his first 17 seasons since he wasn’t able to win a National Title?
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This story about Wooden still amazes me the most. Can you imagine if he’d have taken the job in ’46?
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Since it is a FSU blogger, I don’t think there is any reason to question his research and methodology, and it makes perfect sense that FSU would be popular on TV since they frequently don’t sell out the stadium. Someone needs to bring this information to the ESPN people and the CBS people who are paying all that money to a conference that doesn’t have a team in the top 15. CBS and ESPN must not know what they are doing, because clearly they are getting hosed by the SEC.
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These Grantham hiring stories hint at what I commented on repeatedly during the process—that forces outside your athletic dept. were involved. Its either that, or there was a problem between Richt and Evans, which both deny. There is no other possibility. The question is who were these outside “forces” and how did they have enough clout to affect the situation.
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If by “forces outside your athletic dept.” you mean Grantham, I agree. If you don’t, I’m not sure what you’re referring to.
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Could be that the deep-pocketed booters needed to be satisfied in going after a few “bigger names” before going after a relatively unknown name in the college football world…
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I will say this: as a simple fan who has fairly closely followed the team and attended games since 1969 I have to say I don’t care much about the ‘process’ and whether Grantham was first choice or not. I wouldn’t want the AD to do anything illegal, but apart from that, do what you have to do. As I recall, there were all manner of hiccups in the hiring of Saban at Alabama. I don’t think they worry about it much now one way or the other.
For me, the important thing is that we have a coach and coordinator, he appears to be eminently qualified, and also looks to be successful at his job, if not immediately, at least in the near future.
Why worry about anything else? The gal I married wasn’t the first girl I asked out, either, and it has worked out fine for nearly 40 years.
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Interesting what a couple of Weedwhacker Bowls will do to your ranking.
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I for one am shocked that a Florida writer is comparing Billy Donovan to John Wooden.
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It’s easy to draw larger than average viewership to a bowl if you’re a big school continually going to bad bowls. Big schools that go to big bowls don’t raise ratings very much because the ratings were already so high. That’s why the SEC performs so poorly on that list (and FSU so well).
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Exactly.
Which is why I would have preferred not to see Georgia ranked as high as it is on that list.
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I think it’s a tough thing to compare, regardless of how you look at it.
On one hand, you have schools whose fanbases don’t travel well, but will watch the bowl games (Georgia Tech).
On the other hand, at what point is it simply that you have more fans?
I think it requires a much more in-depth study to figure all of this out. I think you would have to look at the margin of each game and figure out at what point does a higher rating actually equate something negative (such as a big school going to a crappy bowl, or a fanbase that doesn’t travel well) like the stat BABIP (batting average on balls in play) does with baseball. If a hitter’s BABIP is extremely high, then you know that they’re getting lucky a good bit of the time. If the BABIP is low, you know they’re hitting the ball, they’re just hitting it at people (Troy Glaus during the month of April vs. Troy Glaus during May). Ideally, you want one somewhere in the middle.
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So you’re saying GTU has enough fans to make a major difference in bowl-game TV market-share?
I’m doubtful.
Hell, they don’t travel well to their own stadium.
Perhaps with another example, the point is conceded.
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I am like DH on the Grantham mystery, why bring it up? CTG built a house on near Richt’s brother in law, who was a backup QB at Dallas. So Richt and Grantham had probably met socially. The possible hang ups in the hiring process could have been any number of things from outside the program but it would be better if CMR doesn’t answer any more questions regarding the matter. There is always a chance of being sued by one of the guys you DIDN’T hire if a boss talks too much.
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More pom de rue and this time Grantham is the object. Grantham was in the playoffs as Dallas’s D-line coach. He wasn’t going to intertain anything outside of winning the Super Bowl. No need to contact him until Dallas was kaput. Simple reason. Dumbass “mystery”. Every living football fan on earth knew that Richt was waiting for him to focus on and to entertain our offer. The reason was published in all the Dallas and local papers. End of mystery.
Pom de rue!! How do you would-be pundits dream up crap from Richt’s upbeat remarks about one of his new hires? Each week it’s a new remark by Richt with a hidden meaning. I hope he doesn’t slip up and say “Pom de rue” else we will get 86 days of fertilizer articles. I hope something comes to TV soon for you paranoid soapbox idiots to focus on since LOST is over. Jeez!!
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Entertain, not intertain.
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I liked Mark Richt’s first choice as head coach for DC in Van Gorder. No one thought much of him at the time and I had no idea who he was. He may have some great insight.
My rose-colored glasses are on I guess but our team looks pretty good to me and the talent is around.
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In regards to the TV viewership. Basically most conference teams go to bowls that their conference always goes to whether it is a good bowl or bad one. Therefore basically each school is being compared to the other teams in its own conference. Which means that FSU is widely more watched than other teams in the ACC, shocking. UGA is marginally more watched than other teams in the SEC, which is a slight surprise but nothing huge. It is one way of looking at it but you really have to look at what you are comparing the teams to before anyone brags about anything in regards to the “numbers”.
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