A Georgia football performance which makes Michael Adams happy.

This should raise a few eyebrows.

… If you do the math, Georgia is only putting 25.8% of their football revenue back into the program. Meanwhile, the 2009 National Champion, Alabama, was putting 43.3% back into their program, and the 2010 National Champion, Auburn, invested 42.2 percent. Is there perhaps a correlation between this and results on the field? Georgia went 7-5 in 2009 and just 6-6 in 2010. Comparing Georgia to Texas, who is the only school with bigger profits from football, the two are spending at about the same rate, with Texas putting 26.7% back into their program.  However, Texas is spending $25,112,331 to Georgia’s $18,308,654.

I’ll also note that Georgia is second in the SEC in terms of overall athletic department profit at $11.7 million. Alabama, who posted the highest profits for its athletic department, is an outlier with a $44 million profit (more to come on that in a later post). Ole Miss presented a balanced sheet, so they show no profit in the athletic department.  However, the other 10 schools posted an average profit of $5.4 million, putting Georgia’s athletic department at more than twice the average profit.

About that correlation question – it’s hard to say without knowing what that extra spending is going into, so it would be interesting to see a school-by-school breakdown.  But, yeah, it’s hard not to have a nagging feeling that making money has occupied a higher priority for the people running the athletic department (or, more accurately, the person to whom those people answer to) than spending the money to allow the program to succeed at its highest level.

Especially when it’s the continuation of a trend.

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The most disturbing thing you’ll read today about Georgia’s recruiting.

Ladies and gentlemen, presenting a bullish Tom Lemming:

“If they get those guys they will finish somewhere like third, fourth or fifth, maybe higher,” said Lemming, who has Drew and Rome No. 1 at their respective positions and Crowell number four. “Alabama, who is already No. 1, is going to be tough to beat, especially if they end up getting Jadeveon Clowney. Texas already has a great class, even though they recently lost their best player to Auburn. Florida State and LSU have good classes. Then there’s USC, who was supposed to be limited with 15 scholarships but is loading up because of their NCAA appeal. But Georgia’s going to be in that mix.”

The Bulldogs’ class currently ranks No. 8 by Scout.com, No. 9 by Rivals and 11 by ESPNU/Scouts Inc.

“A lot of it has to do with Mark Richt,” Lemming said. “He probably doesn’t get enough credit for being a great recruiter. And it’s Georgia itself. It’s the state school. I’ve been driving through there for 32 years and kids grow up wanting to be Bulldogs, no matter what the situation is.”

Envy and jealousy, hubba hubba edition

I got a chuckle out of this line from Andy Staples:

… Last year, I asked college football recruits to be more careful about what they posted on Facebook. What happens in the rural Mississippi strip club on an official visit probably should stay in the rural Mississippi strip club.

Words to live by, there.

Today’s PSA – another edition of what makes America great

It’s two in the morning and you need some cheap beer?

Not to worry, Walgreens has you covered.

If anybody’s tried Big Flats 1901, please share the experience in the comments.

Two out of three ain’t bad.

Demographics, baby:

What do individuals with post-graduate degrees, Republicans and Southerners have in common?

According to a survey by Harris Interactive Inc., those are the three top demographics for college football fans.

…

College football was least popular with Easterners, Hispanics and those without a college degree.

Are you experienced?

Phil Steele’s got his 2011 returning starters chart posted here.

Vanderbilt is the most experienced team in the country.  Auburn returns fewer starters than any other school, and by a wide margin.

Somehow I doubt any of that would matter if the two played each other this season (they don’t).

That ain’t no way to run a railroad.

A final note related to my two previous posts:

… Tereshinski says one factor that hasn’t gotten much notice is that because of construction, the team has been moved to a different weight room, and for the previous 18 months had been largely operating out of trailers. They didn’t have much room for equipment: No dip bars, no incline presses, and some other machines.

“Last year’s team was very limited, really because of the facility, of what they could get done,” he said. “So we were very weak in our triceps. We were very weak in our upper chests. So what happens is now that we have our full weight room capacities we’re really going to be able to develop our bodies fully. …

“That did affect this team. Because Georgia did not have anything that it was used to having. Now we have an unbelievable weight room, and we have everything we need.”

You can’t really blame that on the coaching staff.  In fact, I wonder how strenuously Richt objected to the timetable when it was presented to him by (I presume) Evans.  In the SEC these days, eighteen months of subpar training is pretty much a ticket to mediocrity… which, when you consider, is where the Georgia program has been the last two seasons.