They’re not being subtle about the new scheduling philosophy.
“The more games you can play at home, the better,” Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity said. “It gives you more of a chance to win, first of all. There are more positives there. I think more home games are good for the fans. They’re good for the community and it’s easier on the team not having to travel as much.”
… Although intersectional games are off the table for the near future, regional games against BCS opponents remain in play when travel is more manageable.
Georgia begins a home-and-home series against Louisville followed by a home-and-home series against Clemson.
“I think that’s okay, periodically,” McGarity said. “Maybe once every eight-year period you can do that. But I think from a financial model and a scheduling model that seven home games is where we need to be.”
…
“Our goal is to play as many home games as possible,” said Georgia associate athletic director for internal affairs Arthur Johnson, who is the point man for football scheduling. “We will continue to play one Football Championship Series game a year and move away from the home-and-home philosophy. A big part of it is revenue and playing at home as much as possible.”
Mmmm... cupcakes.
I get their point, but when you see it in black and white like that, it’s not exactly inspiring.
Get The Picture 
Until this year our team was pretty darn good on the road….
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Really? Remember Okie State? Everybody get off McGarity’s ass about this. He is doing what is best for the team to have the greatest chance for success. You guys want the Dawgs to win all their games, including playing an SEC schedule, yet want them to play Southern Cal, Texas and Oklahoma, home and away. Get real. Once in a while it is OK to play a top team at a neutral site, first game, as long as you also play U.La.La. or somebody like that next. But to play away at a good team’s place, lose and then have to start playing an SEC schedule is a season killer. McGarity was the real brains at FLA and now we have him. If we leave the guy alone and let him do his job we will be playing in the BCSNC Game before you know it (either with or without CMR). Reason and sanity has been restored to the Athletic Department. Thank goodness for red panties.
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Once every eight years we do a home-and-home against a respectable team??? . . .
Well, shit, I’m glad I got the chance to live it up out in Tempe, then. Looks like I may not get another chance to do that in a long, long time.
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This sucks. Is this really what we want to be? A school that stacks the schedule? I propose we change our mascots from Bulldogs to Paper Tigers.
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It worked for the Gators.
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Who cares. Look at what USC did in the mid 2000s. Worked for them, too.
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Kevin,
Are you joking or are you crazy. USC consistently plays the best OOC in the country.
This is an embarrassment. Too bad Mr. McGarity and company don’t feel the same about the Florida game. Nah, we would rather play the garbage that we are playing 3 times this year…how freakin inspiring and more importantly, hypocritical.
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The best OOC in the country to cover the mediocre, at best, play of their conference which until this year had one perennial power.
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Right Scott. Want to check out the PAC 10 record vice the SEC the past 12 years or so? I don’t think so. USC dominating the PAC 10 this decade is no different than Florida dominating the SEC in the 90s or Bama in the 70s.
It is a weak excuse. No one is asking that Georgia have USC’s schedule, but what we are heading to is 3 Idaho State or LA Lafayette games a year in Athens. I cannot imagine any serious competitor revelling in that for some mythical BCS title. Sorry, not my cup of tea.
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Really 2 wins is what you want to trot out. That is covered by UT getting trounced by whatever home and home they’ve cooked up. You very well know that they don’t play these big named opponents because want to. USC has to for any credence to be payed to them west of the Rockies.
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erm east.
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Its 12-9 which proves nothing at all except that they do fairly well against the SEC, and not just Tennessee.
Take off your home blinders and come up with a rational reason.
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Why don’t you take a gander at the current rankings and tell me what that says? Even with half the SEC on a down year the Pac-10 really is mopping up. So you justify what ever with your head to head record.
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Scott, you do realize that they have 10 teams vice 12?
I am not saying the PAC 10 is better, although looking at the SEC East this year that would hardly be a stretch. But you implied that they are so bad….and they aren’t.
USC plays 6 home games a year and plays on the road against all comers. And their schedule is NORMALLY tougher than ours is.
It amazes me some of the excuses people make for this joke.
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One of the benefits to playing a nine-game conference schedule is that the SOS is going to be better as a rule of thumb than one based on an eight-game schedule.
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Bob,
If you’re arguing that the PAC10 has been as strong as the SEC over the last decade, then you’re the lone voice in the wilderness. Nobody else believes that. I wonder why?
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Pac 10 vs SEC when its Pac 10 #2 vs. SEC #8? Yeah… not very valuable info.
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Bob, that was exactly my point. I think you misread the context. I should have been more clear. It works for UF on a shit schedule, and it ALSO works for USC on a bad-ass OOC schedule. You can’t make the excuse that it can’t be done. You just need the team to do it. If we can’t beat middling Pac-10 teams, I don’t want to be in the MNC.
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Kevin,
Apologies. I did miss your point.
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I guess McGarity figures it doesn’t matter whether you beat UF or not as long as you have the revenue from 7 home games.
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Looks like more and more thrilling games like tomorrow in the Dawgs’ future. Can’t you feel the excitement in the air? What’s the over/under on tomorrow’s attendance?
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yeah, it sucks that we won’t get to see as many big games, but that philosophy that got uf 2 national titles.
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In addition to the yearly game against Florida St., UF played Miami when they won the 2008 national title.
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And we will still play Tech with the occasional trip to Clemson, Louisville, or wherever. We’re just following the Florida model.
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I don’t have any problems with this. Look at the other BCS teams that do this, like Ohio State. Sure, it’s easy to make fun of their schedule, but they are always near the top of the BCS rankings with a chance to play in the big game. That’s where we want to be right? The SEC schedule is tough enough as it is, why not schedule a few cupcakes and give ourselves a better chance to play in the big game.
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tOSU? Hey, didn’t they play Miami this year? And USC in 09 and 08, and Texas in 07 and 06?
Not the best example.
Of course, they don’t have to play Georgia Tech every cotton-pickin’ year, so they can do that and schedule Youngstown St.
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They play the Y.A.W.N Schedule consistently; Youngstown, Akron, Western Michigan, and North Illinois
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I’m okay with not trying to “expand the brand” to the west coast. We have enough of a recruiting base that we don’t need to do that but I don’t see a problem with playing some games with teams alond the east coast and midwest, perhaps make the central timezone the cutoff point. We could still get some good games occasionally with Penn State, Va Tech, The U, Wisconsin, tOSU, Michigan, etc. and still be a pretty short trip by plane without having our internal clocks messed up.
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Okay, I’m going to say it…if you don’t understand McGarity’s new scheduling philosophy and you’re not for it, then you simply don’t have the best interest of the Georgia Bulldogs in mind. You can’t have Tech on the schedule, the game in Jax, AND another BCS conference team on the schedule. You just can’t. This is the formula to give us the best chance to win. Playing a 4 quarter game in a meaningless contest (SEC-wise) in Boulder does nothing to help us. All it got us was a loss, another quarter w/o AJ Green, and a concussion for Branden Smith. THIS. IS. THE. FORMULA.
Anybody notice Mark Richt’s record started taking a nose dive in 2006, when we started scheduling these other BCS games? Hmmm…We either lost the game outright or lost a pivotal SEC game the following week in 5-6 of the games versus OSU, ASU, and Colorado. It ain’t worth it if no one else is doing it. I’d like great experiences in Pasedena and Tempe in January, not September.
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Injuries? We lost Boss Bailey on the first play against 1-AA Georgia Southern. At home. THE. FORMULA. GUARANTEES. NOTHING. UFaG had one loss in each of their glorious championship seasons. They were lucky enough to win the BCS beauty contest both times. Georgia had one loss in 2002, a season when they played Clemson in addition to the horrific and terrifying schedule that you reference above. Georgia could have done what Florida did, unfortunately an Ohio State University and Miami went unbeaten.
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So we need more home games, but we insist on continuing to play Florida 70 miles from the Swamp every year. Sure, how stupid can anyone be?
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You do understand that the school makes more on two games in Jax than it would in a home-and-home with UF, right?
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Yes I understand that. You do understand that we already are one of the most profitable ADs in the country.
And besides, a change of location couldn’t hurt, could it?
Our home schedules already suck and we never get to see our biggest rival at home. And half the season ticket holders cannot get seats to the WLOCP. Where is the concern for them?
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I’m curious: do you hear that complaint from a lot of season ticket holders?
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Actually I do. Relatively new season ticket holders are too low on the priority list to get tickets to Jax.
Look Senator I don’t really care. But when I hear our esteemed AD talk about concern for business in Athens, I want to puke. He loves the WLOCP where it is at, regardless of how much a disadvantage it is to our team.
We played Ok State and ASU prime time on National TV in Athens. We play Idaho State on Channel 2 or PPV. And now we get the challenge of playing it three times a year. Whooopee.
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Why wouldn’t he like the WLOCP in Jacksonville. His main concern is the athletic department. Having the game in Jacksonville makes him more money than a home and home would.
But what makes UGA (and Athens) even more money than a home and home is a cupcake game in Athens every year.
What’s so hard about that?
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Commenting on the Senator’s retort to Bob on the WLOCP $$ issue, both UGA and FLA have stadiums that seat about 100,000+/- people. Jax Mun. Stadium (or whatever the name of the place is this week) seats about 70,000. That means in a 2 year cycle (that would be home and home) 140,000 fans see the WLOCP game at present. Split evenly between the 2 schools that means that 70,000 UGA fans and 70,000FLA fans see the game over a 2 year period. (I maintain it is really the same 35,000 twice for each school, but that is another story.) Alternatively, under the home and home model, about 200,000 fans would see the game in a two year period. Assuming only 10,000 fans from the visiting school get away tickets each place, that is a wash fan-wise for each school. Thus, 100,000 fans of each school would get to see a UGA-FLA game over a 2 year period if the game were home and home. That is net 30,000 LESS UGA fans and 30,000 LESS FLA fans seeing the UGA-FLA game over a 2 year period as things now stand. I don’t care if the schools make more money going to Jax. The fans lose access to their team and the fans are what this is supposed to be all about. The way we are doing this now is not in the best interest of the fans, even totally ignoring the one-sided result on the field. Who does this system favor? The City of Jacksonville that’s who, which makes beaucoup of dough off the game and consequently bribes both teams to keep coming back. That is why the game is so profitable. But is it right? Absolutely not!
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Just ridiculous. Yea let’s load the schedule with cream puffs, stay in our little corner of USA, and go play in a BCS bowl. Guys like you would be happy beating up high school teams if it meant we went 12-0.
It’s all about dollars and our new doctrine says they believe adding a 7th home game will make up for playing better OOC games and getting national exposure. I disagree with that philosophy and to say I don’t care about UGA because of that is ludicrous.
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This new philosophy (or formula) isn’t about giving us the best chance to win. It’s about making more money for the athletic department. Maybe that’s OK, but let’s not pretend winning championships is the highest priority of the Georgia athletic department. Like any other successful business, it’s all about the revenue.
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You’re presenting a false dilemma. Strategies for making money and winning championships can sometimes coincide.
The SEC schedule is usually strong enough that the SEC champion has a good case for a spot in the BCS title game, as long as the team doesn’t have any OOC losses. Playing strong OOC teams has more potential to hurt you with a loss than to help you with a win. See Boise State.
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“Strategies for making money and winning championships can sometimes coincide.”
True. My point is that the primary motivation is money, not winning championships. Though as you say, the two aren’t mutually exclusive.
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I wish he’d just said that we’re going to manipulate the schedule to create every advantage that would allow us to beat Florida.
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I for one am in favor. Sure you might miss a great regular season game every couple of years, but it will be replaced by playing in January in Miami, Glendale, Los Angelos, or New Orleans against a quality opponent too. Not to mention Atlanta in December.
This will add an extra win every year, another week without having to travel across county, and hopefully another home game with the financial payout it brings. This ultimately strengthens our football and athletic department in my opinion.
Losing to Okie St and Colorado on the road are hard to swallow no matter how much you enjoy the travel. Let’s get back to owning the Southeast and not going back to Shreveport or Birmingham ever again.
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If this results in playing in Glendale and New Orleans in January, I’m all for it.
If we’re going to continue to suck, though, give me the cool trips to Tempe and Boulder all day long.
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+1
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+1
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Senator, tell us again how great the FBS regular season is.
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Are you for real with this?
Please enlighten me as to how college basketball manages to avoid scheduling cupcake games… oh, that’s right, it has more.
College football’s regular season is more meaningful because it’s not a seeding delivery system. It’s more meaningful because a team with a regular season losing record isn’t going to have even the slightest opportunity to play for a national title. It’s more meaningful because it doesn’t attempt to create a situation where a Sun Belt champ gets in a playoff while the third place SEC team doesn’t.
Again, if you love brackets, I can respect that. But don’t try to act like there aren’t tradeoffs with an extended playoff.
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I wasn’t really thinking about college basketball. I was thinking more that in CFB the lack of a playoff was THE factor that made the regular season so exciting. While I will not disagree with that sentiment, I question the excitement factor vis-a-vis the McGarity Doctrine.
I just don’t find playing Idaho State exciting.
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Sorry…not disagreeing with the causal relationship so much as the presumed quality of the end result.
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Nobody, playoff or otherwise, has a schedule where every week of play is compelling.
Meaningful isn’t the same thing as exciting, in other words.
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Two of these games is understandable. Three flat out sucks. No amount of rationalizing changes that. Throw in Vandy and you might get 7 home games but 4 would normally be pathetic.
As for losses at Ok State and Colorado, that might carry some weight if we hadn’t lost 8 SEC games in the same time span. That is a bogus, sorry excuse.
I am not saying we need to be playing 3 BCS foes since we have Tech. I understand that. But three pieces of garbage is disgusting. Coupled with never playing Florida in Athens makes it a joke. No other university in America is this stupid.
Disgusted.
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How about Texas? Routinely they play three cupcakes (this year Rice, Wyoming, and FAU) and one good OOC game (this year UCLA). They also annually play their biggest rival in a “neutral” site. Last year Texas didn’t even play a “good” OOC game (Wyoming [though on the road], Louisiana Monroe, UCF, and UTEP). 2008 it was FAU, at UTEP, Rice, and Arkansas. In that span they’ve outscored their opponents 478-144 (including the loss to UCLA), so I’m guessing that those weren’t real exciting games.
I could make the same analysis with Ohio State, Penn State, Florida, Southern Cal, etc. I get the point you are making, and I agree that it sucks going to Athens three times per season to see a blowout against vastly inferior talent. But the Florida game really hamstrings the schedule. My biggest complaint is scheduling an FCS team. For me, that is an embarrassment in college football as a whole. There are plenty of UCFs, FAUs, etc. that would take the check to come and play in Athens instead of bringing in Georgia Southern, Idaho State, or whoever the whipping boy is going to be that year.
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They had Arkansas scheduled home and home but Petrino backed out of their home game last year in Fayetteville. They also have been on the road to places like Wyoming, Central Florida and UTEP. But you are right, for the most part their OOC has been less than stellar….and btw, while yes they have been to 2 BCS title games, they have won 2 Big 12 titles since 1996. Sounds familiar to someone else.
And Norman and Austin are both 194 miles from Dallas. The Cotton Bowl is not located 70 miles from Owen Field.
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Don’t get me wrong, I totally get your original point and agree with it. I was just pointing out that with Tech on the schedule and Florida in Jax it makes scheduling tough games very dangerous.
I think that we should drop out of the SEC, join the Sun Belt, play Tech every year, pick another mid-tier ACC, Big East, or similar school to play, run through the schedule year in and year out, and routinely go to BCS games and perhaps, after a few years of hammering everything in our path, get invited to the BCS championship game because enough people believe that we either deserve it or that we could beat anyone on a neutral field.
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Do you think it would be more exciting if we were 9-0?
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Idaho State would not feel more exciting no matter the record, IMO.
Don’t confuse the totality of the season with the particularities of the contest itself.
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I just can’t, for the life of me, figure out why so many UGA fans want to play against a stacked deck. Here Auburn sits w/ 8 home games, everyone else in the league has 7 or 8, and we’d rather have ‘fun’ trips to Boulder and 6 home games instead of giving our guys the best chance to win.
The truth is we don’t know what this will give us, but we know what the scheduling from 2006 on gave us.
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+1.
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Not very meaningful when you play 7 home games and you start stacking the schedule, eh? The problem with the current BCS system is that it DOES NOT reward momentum. A team that loses a few early but comes back to win the conference (UF this year?), does not even have a glimmer of hope at a BCS championship. Is that making all games meaningful?
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Did you even read what you wrote there?
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So how is it that our last three games are meaningful, Senator?
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Oy. C’mon here.
The point isn’t that every game on every team’s schedule is meaningful. It’s that the regular season as a whole is meaningful.
You tell me – how meaningful would an Auburn loss to Georgia be?
And how meaningful is this?
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My point is that regular season games would be more meaningful for more teams if they are all vying for playoff spots and the undefeated teams would be trying to keep perfect records in tact to get home field advantage.
Are you really comparing football to soccer? There is no comparison to football games where your overall record would determine your seeding and home field advantage is HUGE. Come on.
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How does a regular season game become more meaningful if a team can lose it and still make the playoffs anyway (which is the message from the story I linked to)?
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I disagree. The story you linked to has no association with football. It is disheartening you can’t discern between the two or rather that you refuse to logically consider my point.
How many teams are just playing out the schedule right now? Sure every game means something under the current schedule for those that are still in the hunt, which is very few. What? Six or seven teams?
Could you imagine a scenario where the top 20 teams are all still playing their hearts out at this juncture to get into a playoff system? I can. The reality is that Arky is going to give it a good shot this weekend, but they know they don’t have any shot at a national title or SEC title at this point. USC wants to win the SECe, but they can’t play for a national title. Under a playoff system they would both be playing with MUCH greater urgency this weekend because a loss will mean dropping out of playoff contention.
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Unless, of course, you’ve got a spot in the playoffs already locked up. Which is the point of the linked article.
We already had a big discussion about this last season in the context of what the Colts did at season’s end. It is what it is.
And exactly why do we want the 20th best team in the country in contention for a national title anyway?
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It’s disheartening that you can’t see that the drawbacks of having an expanded tournament would follow an expanded tournament to college football.
Logicians call your argument, “College football is different because it just is,” begging the question.
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I’m with the Senator on this. The woods are full of stories where NFL teams “rested” their star players in the last game of the regular season (and sometimes before that) to get ready for the playoffs because the team already had a playoff berth sewed up. There would be college teams doing exactly the same thing if there was an extended playoff system. And the first round game would be a walkover for most of the top teams, something like SEC Champion vs. Sunbelt Champion.
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Why should late games be more meaningful than early ones? Why should Michigan, for instance, be punished because they play Ohio State at the end of the season rather than the beginning?
I think the fact that Florida is already knocked out of the BCS DOES make all games meaningful. They lost three games in a row. Just because it happened before November doesn’t mean that gets excused.
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Teams mature through the season and some regress. I would rather watch the teams that are peaking play, but that’s just me.
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Having one neutral site game per year and wanting seven home games per year guarantees no more intersectional home-and-home series.
Maybe Georgia should stop playing Tech every year and adopt a six year rotation where they play Tech, Clemson, and a random BCS team home and home. That would keep both local rivalries fairly active and allow Georgia to play a different team (and the fans get something new/hopefully exciting) every five years.
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Yes Yes Yes. At least rotate Tech and Clemson.
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I want Tech every year.
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Even if it means no other games versus BCS competition?
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It shouldn’t have to. Witness the fact that it hasn’t meant that in the last five years.
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I like this idea too.
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Btw, the other glorious result of this plan of action would be Radakovich crapping his pants at the thought of Georgia fans buying GT season tickets once every six years instead of every other year.
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I think this idea should be heavily considered. Gtu is not close to us in terms of football prowess, and the only thing that game provides is a chance to lose to a lesser program.
There is no bump from beating Gtu. There is nothing positive that comes from that game, except tradition. I like the idea of making it a rotating game. Would definitely add some flexibility to the schedule.
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If Tech’s not any good, that would seem to argue in favor of scheduling an additional program that is, rather than dumbing down the schedule even further.
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I thought UGA did get some cache out of beating Tech last year and then Tech being ACC Chumps, didn’t you? Sorta reminded me of that year long ago when LSU beat so many SWC teams in OOC play that, had LSU been a member of the SWC, LSU would have been that conference’s champion.
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BLASPHEMY!
We will play GA Tech every year until I am graveyard dead.
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+100
I’ll never tire of beating the yellow maggots.
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Holy hell. Mack Williams. That name brings back so many memories. Makes me want to throw a salt shaker.
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Why give Clemson any more of an opening into Georgia recruiting?
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I can see how this is making everyone mad, which BCS home and home benefited us in the past? ASU?
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Utah, TCU, and Boise State are all in the top ten and pretty much play a maximum of two meaningful games per year, and a very strong portion of the national media argues that they should play in the national title if they win out. This is just what happens when a standard like that is set. I love watching those big non-conference games, but when non-big six schools can get away with that garbage, there’s no real point in adding as many losable games as possible to your schedule when you already play in the SEC. I hate it, but look for more and more schools to start scheduling this way as long as Boise State, etc., get the national media love that they do while playing such ridiculous schedules.
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I think I’ve lost the energy it takes to be bothered by this.
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Coming right out and saying that you’re only going to play a *regional* BCS conference opponent every eight years or so comes across as cowardice, and I hate it. The fact that he has flat-out guaranteed that we’ll be seeing at least one 1-AA team every year makes me sick. I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to playing Idaho State this Saturday. It’s a non-game, a non-event, and now we’ll be getting it every year. The man has found a way to make me value our matchups with New Mexico State. Amazing.
I’m glad that I went to Boulder. Turns out that was truly a once in a lifetime experience.
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And don’t tell me that this is the only way to have a sound financial plan for the athletic department. How is it that Georgia had one of the nation’s most profitable athletic departments the last few years while we were following such a crazy financial model, scheduling tougher games?
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The stupid game in Jacksonville will make our cupcakes that much softer and creamier, because of how low we will have to go down the chain to get opponents.
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I agree that I don’t want Georgia stacking the cards against ourselves, but could we not have met more in the middle on this? Having two large out of conference opponents might have been too much (Ok. State and Az. State last year.. thank god Az. State wasn’t very good).. but scheduling home and home every 8 years? Uninspiring indeed.
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I hope we don’t play chumps every year like UF or Texas has done lately, but I’m torn on these cross country jaunts. Yes, it’s cool to see us go out west, but we can also cripple ourselves early in the season, when most other teams are playing Donut State. Playing a powerhouse team out of conference is setting yourself up for failure. Ohio State played Miami this year, sure, but who else do they play? A Big Ten schedule is not quite as daunting as a SEC one.
I’m for playing BCS teams on this side of the country, with the occasional trip west.
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Also, while Ohio State played Miami as an OOC game, they also played Marshall, Ohio U. and Eastern Michigan plus their weak-assed Big-10 schedule. A lot easier to play a tough game when the rest of your schedule looks like that.
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I am glad that McGarity is looking out for the best interests of UGA football and the city of Athens.
As much as I like the idea of growing the brand, it really was not happening by playing middle-tier, out-of-region opponents like ASU, Colorado and Okie St.
If we are going to play any out-of-region games going forward, they need to be marquee matchups (Ohio ST, USC, Oklahoma) that will be THE GAME of the weekend when they are played, or can be arranged on opening night, so as not to interfere with the conference schedule.
UGA is not and has never been a national power. We are a Super Regional power, and that is fine. Playing middle-tier Western opponents during the middle of the season is a lot less likely to elevate our status than getting back to winning 11 games a year will.
Of course, all of this is moot if we do not have a professional coaching staff that is more concerned with 3rd down defense than trying to intimidate a 21 year old punter, because we will not be beating many people at home, away or on a neutral field.
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You had me up to the point you started criticizing CTG. You seriously think our defense and special teams haven’t improved this year? Did you miss the Senator’s posts on Meyer taunting UGA fans? Or are you just bitching to bitch?
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“UGA is not and never has been a national power.”
Jeez.
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Looking out for the city of Athens? How are all these 12 o clock games working out for downtown? Oh right, everything is awesome down there.
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You believe having the team in Boulder helps Athens more?
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Maybe you have never heard of advertising.
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Having the Florida game in Athens every other year would help more than playing the crap that McGarity wants to play.
Next thing is we will be playing Kennesaw State and Georgia State (Ala Bama)
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It might help Athens more, having 7 home games some years and 8 others. But it wouldn’t help UGA, which would lose money by moving it out of Jax. And McGarity’s duty is to UGA.
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You think that the downtown businesses would rather buy commercials during an out of town game than have 92k people wandering the streets of Athens?
Maybe you’ve never heard of economics.
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Um… Florida was 4 of 14 on 3rd down conversions against Grantham’s defense. How much more concerned should he have been?
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There were 4 conversions, Paaawwwwwwl. I’m not sure he’s SEC material.
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I saw this coming. The perception that the SEC schedule is tough enough contributes to this. I for one became very bored always playing the same schedule. The big non-conference games are very exciting and help sort out the BCS. UGA fans travel well. I don’t want that to disappear (except the BCS). The blow out games are boring and tell us nothing about the team. With this philosphy, McGarity should promise 10 win seasons forever, the offensive will average 40 plus per game, and the defensive stats will sky-rocket. I am sure we will get GA-State on the schedule soon enough. That sounds like a managable Home and Home series. Maybe we can play Morehouse and Atlanta Clarke as well.
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Of the folks on either side of the issue, I wonder where more of us season ticket holders are. I’m all for UGA winning as many games as possible, but I must admit the costs of donating plus the (higher) costs of purchasing 4 seats for seven home games, three of which are complete garbage, doesn’t really excite me.
There are plenty of us season ticket holders with kids or other obligations who can’t go to every game. You’d like to be able to recapture some of what you spend by at least selling your tickets for face value when you can’t go. Those cupcake games after the opener aren’t exactly hot tickets. I had to beg someone to take my tickets FOR FREE this weekend.
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Amen brother. Amen.
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as an attendee, i don’t like the new philosophy, but i understand it. but my qualm is even when we wanted to play bigger games we were not good at scheduling them. i have no idea why, but we manage to plan these games when our rotation games are strongest. we get both ok st and asu the same year, plus a trip to lsu. we get louisville when we have ms schools, but when we go out to asu, we had both bama/lsu. then the next time we have both bama/lsu on tap, in 2013, we go to clemson. i understand programs fluctuate, but come on. wouldn’t you rather schedule these games when we aren’t playing the dominate western teams? if we put ourselves in a corner due to incompetence w/ the damon doctrine, i’d rather have mcgarity’s.
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This is an outstanding observation.
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McGarity is full of shit.
You can’t say “The more games you can play at home, the better” out one side of your mouth, and re-up the Jacksonville contract at the same time.
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Hobnail, you hit the damn nail on the head. It is utterly stupid.
The ONLY concern here is the dollars. I have no problem with that because you need the $. But then admit it. Talking about home games for your fans or for business’ in Athens is doubletalk when you insist on playing on a neutral field 70 miles from the Swamp.
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McGarity isn’t showing himself to be the sharpest knife in the drawer.
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I probably have been the most vocal poster on this blog in favor of moving the UGA-FLA game out of Jax. I think McGarity is crazy like a fox. Think about it. He may have his hands tied on this for now. The contract was already been agreed to even if not signed yet before McGarity arrived and the President of the University of Georgia had announced the extension. If McGarity shows up and wants to go home and home with the lizards right away he may not be AD long. Too many old alums (read: big contributors) have a vested interest in the status quo, condos at the beach, 35 year annual meetings with old pals, golf tournaments,etc. But if he waits, improves UGA’s record plus does some other things to ingratiate himself and the alums in question start to like what he is doing, then maybe when the contract comes up for renewal next time…….
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Damon Evans opined that he didn’t want UGA to be a “good” program but a “great” one (like Florida). It followed, according to Evans, that the Dawgs needed to travel outside the region and “grow the brand”. In addition to the fact that Evans gave aid and comfort to the enemy by tossing bouquets their way, this scheduling philosophy was misguided.
Georgia is a major football program with a proud tradition– a tradition superior to Florida over the last 75 years. Most high school recruits have heard of Georgia and know it is a strong program.
Georgia plays in unarguably the top conference in the nation. The tradition and recent successes of the SEC speak for themselves. No team which plays in the SEC should ever need answer for it’s strength of schedule. In short, we play Florida, Auburn, and Tennessee every year, not Nevada, Louisiana Tech, and Little Sisters of the Poor.
Also, Georgia (like Florida and South Carolina) plays a difficult out of conference game every year. It is a definite advantage for Alabama (and Auburn, LSU, etc) to play in conference against their major rival. Unlike UGA, these teams can afford to schedule a sexy out of conference game because they don’t have to “waste” it on a their primary rival.
Finally, the bottom line in this business is wins and cash. Greg McGarity understands that if you win big, you have no difficulty in gaining recruits. In 2008, Georgia lost to Alabama after a trip across the country to Tempe. I was there and it was a lot of fun going west and pounding a team from the Pac 10. Unfortunately, the result next week more than made up for the exult of the ASU game. The dawgs trailed 31-0 at halftime and lost 41-30.
I wholeheartedly agree with the present decision and direction. While it is exciting to play other big time programs, I get more excited about winning SEC and National Championships.
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Well said. It boils down to what you want to achieve. Scheduling is an all or nothing game, meaning if you do schedule a good game you need to schedule one againt the best of opponents. By scheduling second tier AQ conference teams (ASU and CO for example) it creates a no win situation. You win, eh and you lose, then that loss is compared to every other teams loss. When you play a top tier national program (whether or not they are good) and you win, you have the strongest of wins. If you lose, you end up with the best loss you could have. I understand the doctrine and if we aren’t gonna do it then we schedule the biggest boys. There’s no middle, only quicksand.
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I think McGarity and the posting mayor here must have bought into several Athens businesses and parking concessions, there is no other logical reason for moving in such an embarrassing direction. Why not go 1-AA? We would then have the biggest stadium and could play all games at home by splitting revenues with the other little programs. (Think of it: with Ga Southern, UTC, Ga State, Furman, Presbyterian, Wofford, Appalachian, W. Georgia, Valdosta, etc., all being a short drive, we could rent Sanford to them for home games. Their fans could drive to and from games, and there could be double, and triple headers every Saturday.) That would make those who judge a program by the number of Ws happy, regardless of game quality. And it would please those who like 12:00 kickoffs and less tailgaters. After all, it is the extended direction of this thinking.
Beautiful, effing beautiful! Just when we think things cannot get any worse, the inmates take over the asylum. Supporters should look forward to more games like tomorrow, that is our future. Our fans should never criticize Boise for their schedule, or GT for leaving the conference. Seems we have folks who want to offer the fans less for their money. I confidently predict, combined with the economy we are headed for, this will reduce donations and demands for season tickets for years to come.
It makes much more sense to selectively get good seats from Stub Hub for the occasional meaningful game. The other Saturdays, TV will offer more entertaining, and significant, games. You can still be a Dawg fan without spending a few hundred dollars per home game to support this type of leadership, hundreds of thousands already do this.
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Totally agree. As I implied above, some consideration has to be given to the folks who are actually buying the tickets to these games. Of the folks who support watering down the schedule, I wonder how many stroke the checks each year to fill the seats.
At the minimum donation level, I would spend roughly $100 per seat, per game for a seven game home slate. I have four seats. If three of the games are against the discharge of some obscure conference or the FBS, that’s $1,200 over the course of a season I would spend on buying tickets to those games. How are we supposed to feel about that?
I fully support playing a couple of these games per year. You could play a high school team in the opener, and I would still be excited as a result of football starvation. I understand another as a modified bye week. A third, though? Give me a break. Especially a third one immediately following another home game; no one could be expected to get excited about that.
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For most other teams, they need the schedule to help them
We don’t and the SEC will assure us a NC Game if we go undefeated
Sure AU in ’04 may occur but that rarely will happen
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I get so sick and tired of hearing how Arizona State is the reason we lost to Alabama. What crap. Explain the loss to Tennessee in 07 and 09. We didn’t return from Hawaii before those games.
It is a crutch and that is all it is. I would prefer to play those type games earlier in the year too, but unless the SEC starts scheduling all OOC first like almost every other conference does, then it won’t happen. And besides, playing three garbage games in a row at the beginning of the season would not give us the appropriate rest before our big games.
Enough with the we lost to Bama because of Tempe excuse, because that is all it is….a big, fat excuse.
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You have evidence that a weak OOC schedule with an SEC schedule may lead to a NC and the SEC team with the strong OOC and NC would be, whom?
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If y’all had just picked up your trash, it would never have come to this.
Noon home games are going to continue in Athens for a long time.
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If we’re going to play a 1-AA team every season (bummer), then at least make it GA. Southern or GA. State. Support the in-state teams.
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I was always under the impression that State would be a 1-A school eventually? Heck, I think their enrollment is twice the size of the Northerners’ Engine Rebuilding and Distributive-education School.
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I’ve been painfully on the fence with respect to this issue for some time. On one hand I made the ASU trip and Oklahoma State and had a great time, and go down for Florida almost every year. On the other hand I see Auburn with 8 home games virtually every year and Florida’s schedule of never even leaving their home state, and can see Georgia puts itself at a disadvantage.
Great comments on this thread laying out well-reasoned (mostly) arguments on both sides, but I think the two most compelling arguments fall on McGarity’s side. (1) if idiotic midmajors that play NINE or TEN cupcakes a year can weasel their way into the top 5 and consistently make BCS bowl games, nebulous strength-of-schedule arguments don’t seem to get you much respect in eyes of the pollsters. Gaudy numbers against inferior competition do. (2) while I totally enjoy the OOC road trips during the season, a better regular season record will yield better bowls, such that a good intersectional matchup can be in Florida against the Big 10 or dare-we-hope a BCS at-large bid. Once you get past the BCSC game, bowl folks don’t worry about SOS, only a team’s record and whether the fans travel well.
So, cupcakes it is.
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I do not agree that GT should be on UGA’s only OOC BCS team. UGA does not have the media favortism that UF gets.
Playing OOC was paying off with continued votes the last 2 years and a preseason #1.
If UGA does go this path winning the WLOCP becomes even more important.
Bama, UT, Auburn, and LSU are generally play one BCS team OOC granted their in state rival for all but 1 is in the SEC. However, GT did not build much repsect for UGA prior to UGA scheduling OOC games from around the country.
If UGA does not do home and aways then IMO UGA should go after neutral field matchups such as the kick off in the Dome.
Again if UGA wants to beat Florida regularly be sure to schedule the game before equally. UF can not have a cupcake or off week while UGA plays even a mid level SEC team.
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As a new season ticket holder, I am utterly ticked off by this direction. This season has mainly sucked because watching UGA football the past two years is all about watching BAD football. A completely uninspiring home schedule with noon start after noon start has just added to the ennui. Nothing like complete irrelevance in college football. Here’s the thing, until UGA learns to beat UF in Jacksonville, there is literally almost no chance to even think about MNCs. The only thing this program has going for it is a number of great rivalries that usually lead to good games. Instead, we should be expecting absolutely pitiful home schedules at least 2-3 years out of 8. Thanks, MeGarrity. You better hope Richt figures out how to coach good football again because UGA is on the precipice of 90s irrelevance once again. Unfortunately, I am now one of the ones paying hundreds of dollars to do something else on Saturday afternoon.
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Your right Meg!
Greg McGarity and President Michael Adams have become the head coach’s biggest apologists!
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