The 2016 Georgia-Georgia Southern game has been rescheduled for November 21, 2015, at a cost to Georgia of a mere $325,000. That’s a fair amount of jack to move a game, especially for an athletic department that watches its dollars most carefully. It also moves the game out of its regular four-year rotation. So Seth Emerson asks the logical question and gets:
McGarity insisted the move had nothing to do with any possibility of the SEC going to a nine-game schedule, which at the earliest would happen in 2016.
“It has nothing to do with other than moving it up a year,” McGarity said.
Yeah, sure.
Get The Picture 
UGA ought to play Georgia Southern every year. If we’re going to play cupcakes at Least keep the dinero in-state.
LikeLike
Did you see the crappy home 3 home games for 2015? Horrible. 3 sisters of he poor. going to be a long home year
LikeLike
Three crappy home games? Hell, don’t forget Kentucky will be on the schedule too. Looks like Southern, LA Monroe, Georgia Southern, Kentucky, Carolina, Mizzou and some team out of the West. And we seriously wonder why attendance is a problem in CFB? Really???
LikeLike
I think you are mistaken. The o,ther home game is likely to be Auburn, Alabama, or TX A&M. We have not played Bama in the regular season since 2008 and we’ve never played A&M. I’d bet we get one of them for our rotating opponent. (MSU is the other option but we played them in 2011.) Also, since we played two in a row at Auburn, it’s not out of the question for us to play Auburn at home twice in a row and get Bama or A&M on the road.
Regardless, with the trajectory of UK under Stoops, Spurrier at Carolina, Mizzou’s recent success, and almost certainly Bama, Auburn, or A&M from the west, I think the 2015 schedule should have 3 and maybe 4 solid home games. You add to that that one of the cupcakes is the opener and you’ve got the potential for 5 home games with some level of buzz not counting GA Southern which has the most buzz for any cupcake game.
Not a bad home slate plus we get half the tickets in Jax for all of us that like to go to the coast in late October.
I’d expect this move was made because it was the cheapest way to get a cupcake for 2015. Scheduling an FBS team this late in the process can get very expensive. It’s possible that the original plan was to play a BCS level team – that plan fell through – maybe because of a new scheduling approach – and we really needed another 2015 team.
LikeLike
The move of the AU game was permanent to get all SEC East-West crossover games in the same sequence. It is not changing back. You could be right about Bama or A&M which would be fine.
However, there is absolutely nothing appealing about Southern, LA Monroe and even Georgia Southern. And we have heard how Kentucky is going to be a power before…sorry, I ain’t buying it at all. The home schedule sucks. And that is the biggest reason college football is beginning to have attendance problems.
There are rumors out of Tallahassee of a Georgia-FSU set in 16 and 18 in Orlando and Atlanta. Don’t know if it has any merit.
LikeLike
3 likely games against top 15 caliber teams is not a bad home slate. Not often that we have that.
LikeLike
UGA-FSU in Orlando/ATL??? That would be ridiculous. That would mean 2 neutral games in Florida and the Orlando Stadium is way too small and obsolete and I haven’t heard of them building a new one.
LikeLike
They started the renovation immediately after this year’s Citrus Bowl, and someone on one of the boards showed some of the stands demo’ed….
LikeLike
Greg, is that you?
LikeLike
LOL
“If some of our fans want to step up and donate to fund a better out of conference schedule, maybe we can make that happen.” – Greg M.
LikeLike
Georgia Southern will be an FBS team starting next year. Sun Belt Conference.
LikeLike
Didn’t Ga Southern beat Florida last season? Maybe they aren’t such a walkover after all.Just sayin.’
LikeLike
Or maybe Florida sucked that much last season.
LikeLike
Or maybe both? 🙂
LikeLike
The practice game for gtu – IF fishfry is still there. I’d say its money well spent if it helps insure a win at the CMR-Grant-Dodd mini stadium.
LikeLike
I am not sure Southern will be running the old Triple O anymore. We have nothing to gain and everything to lose from playing them and they hate us most of all,cancel the series please
LikeLike
I guess this means they’re not doing 9 conference games in 2015.
LikeLike
I just hate playing 2 triple-option teams to close the season before a possible SECCG. It’s bad enough playing one.
LikeLike
Southern is moving away from the Triple O with their new coach.
LikeLike
Yep, Southern’s new look will look more like Auburn than Tech.
LikeLike
325K to piss into the wind but no IPF…
LikeLike
What, would you rather us play FSU or TX in ATL to open the year, with several starters suspended, or pay GA Southern a little extra jack?
It’s a 4 team playoff now – you win the SEC with less than 2 losses – you’re in. You don’t win the SEC or win it with 2 losses – you’re probably out. Be at full strength against Carolina, play Tech, and go on. No one else in the SEC plays two OOC BCS games per year on a regular basis. Why should we?? (Yes, I know UF occasionally plays Miami to go along with FSU, but that is no different than our occasional Clemson series – which by the way needs to be moved to the 3rd week or so of September if we are going to do it again.)
LikeLike
UGA could win the SEC East with an undefeated regular season, lose the SECCG, then still make the 4 team playoff with only 1 loss, too.
LikeLike
Because clearly having an IPF means a lot more to fans on the street than the people who would actually use it or donate the money to pay for it.
LikeLike
I don’t like the fact that during a 3 week span in November, we’re going to play 2 cupcakes (Louisiana-Monroe on Nov. 7 and Georgia Southern on Nov. 21). Spread the cupcakes out more. Use them like quasi-off weeks.
Assuming we get the week before Florida off, we’re going to play 6 straight conference games from week 2 through week 7.
LikeLike
I agree with you about spreading the cupcakes through the season better but the 6 conference games in a row is on the SEC office which sets the conference schedule.
LikeLike
If that’s true Mayor, how is it that we’re setting our 2015 non-conference schedule when the SEC office hasn’t determined the 2015 conference schedule?
LikeLike
We already have been told our non-SEC game weeks by the conference office so we can set our OOC schedule. As to your unstated but implied question, I too have often thought that there was/is collusion between the SEC and certain ADs/universities. How else was Jeremy Foley able to get the WLOCP scheduled for so many years when FU had an of-week before that game and UGA did not? That appears to be a thing of the past once the UGA administration wised up to that a few years ago. It took about 20 years for the rubes at B-M to figure that one out, though.
LikeLike
The point I was trying to make with that question was that we know what our conference off weeks are going to be b/c we’ve been involved in the input/lobbying process that goes along with setting those dates. That was a poor attempt by me to make that point though. But it was Saturday night and I was half-drunk, so please excuse me.
In any event, I don’t buy that we had to just accept 6 straight conference games. We failed in our lobbying effort there. As it stands now, assuming we get the week before Florida off again, we’re going to have 4 of our 5 conference off weeks in the last 6 weeks of the season. That means our conference schedule lays out like this:
week 1 – off
week 2 – conf game
week 3 – conf game
week 4 – conf game
week 5 – conf game
week 6 – conf game
week 7 – conf game
week 8 – off
week 9 – conf game
week 10 – off
week 11 – conf game
week 12 – off
week 13 – off
I think that’s piss poor schedule layout to end up with.
LikeLike
I think the SEC generally needs to do a better job of late-season scheduling. Mizzou kind of mixes things up now, but the East division race is usually decided with a month to go since we, USC, and UF have non-con rivals & UT closes with UK/Vandy. But the non-con dates don’t seem abnormal to me based on recent years.
Week 1: Since we’re not Vandy or Ole Miss, this if fine.
Week 8: Off before the cocktail party–no arguments.
Week 13: Tech–obviously
So that just leaves week 10 & 12 to play with, and these are the weeks leading up to Auburn & Tech respectively. Recently Kentucky has been a floating opponent that gets scheduled toward the end of the season, but when they’re not available what other SEC team would you like to play right before these rivals? As long as Tech is triple-option I think an extra week to prepare (possibly with a random cupcake) is warranted, and Auburn… I hate Auburn.
LikeLike
I like beating Auburn and Tech too but come on. Balance the schedule out so that you’re giving yourself a better chance to win the division and the conference. Play a conference game in either week 10 or 12 and move that non-conference game to week 4 or 5 and break up the 6 conference games in a row. You’d still be getting the off week in week 8, which would precede the 5 game stretch to end the season…a stretch that will still include 1 cupcake mind you.
Having an off week or a cupcake every other week in the 2nd half of the season, while the 1st half of your season includes 6 straight conference games, is a pretty ridiculous way to set up your schedule.
LikeLike
And playing a school like Southern, the Louisiana one, is really stooping.
LikeLike
Any home schedule where half the games are glorified scrimmages is crap. I don’t care if it includes Bama. I will giving half my season tickets away.
LikeLike
Great!!! Can I have ’em???
LikeLike
More McGarity malarky. Had no reason to move it other than just a desire to move it. Yeah, McScrooge, you had an extra $325,000 lying around you could have put into the precious reserve fund but, you know, “Dawgs vs. Eagles 2015, Catch the Excitement!” sounds $325,000.00 better than “Dawgs vs. Eagles 2016, Catch the Excitement! “
LikeLike
It will be more than made up for by the rumored UGA-FSU series that espn is brokering.
LikeLike
Not a fan of the FSU series but if you’re going to do it, please do a home and home. With the exception of traditional neutral site games, on campus games are what make college football great.
LikeLike
If ESPN is going to broker a game, why not UGA-Texas or UGA- Ohio State? Playing FSU or Clemson are the biggest no-win scenarios we could have.
LikeLike