Yeah? So how reassuring is that?
Answer: not very.
Morehead, who will cast one of the 14 presidential votes on the matter, was asked if Georgia fans should be concerned about the rivalry ending. He chose his words carefully.
“The presidents and the athletic directors will meet and resolve the scheduling issue shortly,” he said. “There hasn’t been a resolution on any of those issues at this point. So until a vote is taken by the presidents following that meeting, I can’t predict what that outcome may be. We certainly appreciate that it is an important and longstanding rivalry for the University of Georgia.”
“Choosing his words carefully” is not an observation you want to read about a fellow who presumably has already been in touch with his peers to take their temperature on the subject.
Get The Picture 
I guess maybe it’s just me. But, I really don’t give a shit if we keep playing them. Yea, yea, I know it’s the South’s Oldest Rivalry blah, blah, blah,. I’m just not into them much anymore. Am I a Bad Dawg?
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There’s nobody I enjoy beating more, Florida included.
Way to put up your dukes and fight, Jere.
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I will say this, however. It’s a temporary problem. The second they can wring every last nickel out of a nine-game schedule, they’ll do it, and Auburn will be right back in that mid-November slot like nothing happened, and they’ll once again play up the majesty and tradition of the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry. Sorry for the run-on sentence. I am impassioned.
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Yes but is series interruptus what we want this series to be all about?
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Nope. But it looks like we don’t have much choice.
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This is really simple. If the conference takes them off the schedule, just play them as a non-conference game. Two cupcakes, Tech, and Auburn those years. Better to play them than a random BCS level team.
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Maybe not a “bad” one, but not a “real” one, or a “legitimate” one, or one with any perspective at all on what it means to be a UGA fan. The rivalries upon which college football have been built are what make it special.
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Yes. It’s the South’s Oldest Rivalry blah, blah, blah and we didn’t play them two times in a row to have the rest of the university presidents ditch the series. There is only one team that I like Georgia to beat more than Auburn.
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Yes.
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Is it politically incorrect to fight for anything any more?
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It does not sound promising at all. Tradition means nothing when they compare it to the almighty dollar. What is ironic is more and more people are doing away with cable so the money from these networks is not a sure thing.
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“Cord Cutters” aren’t usually sports fans. Or more specifically college football fans. I don’t think the SEC has to worry about declining TV revenue numbers anytime real soon.
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No sure where you’re getting your market sample from, but quite a few folks in major metro areas are big college football fans who simply show up at the “Georgia bar” to watch the games. It worked for me in the 2009 and 2010 seasons.
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Not sure what you mean by “real soon”, but I can see a drop off in interest in five years as the morons who run CFB keep screwing with the game. From stupid rules changes to lack of concern for tradition to chasing the almighty dollar, my interest has lessened in recent years. I love the Dawgs, but I’m not paying big cable fees to watch an Ark-Mizzou tennis match.
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I do not know a single soul who does not have cable. Some of them are not even sports fans.
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Raises paw. I just called DirecTV and suspended my service for the next 3 months. My guess is that I won’t miss a thing and I’ll suspend it again until the first day of CFB.
I’m developing other – healthier, honestly – obsessions so this may be me cutting the figurative cord with TV.
I tell you what: I sure as shit ain’t payin’ extra for SEC Network. Why? Because I was already getting all the games I wanted without having to ante up for a new fee/rate hike. I hope Jere enjoys counting all that money but it ain’t comin’ from me.
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I’m certainly not considering purchasing the SEC Network if Time Warner signs on. Who wants to watch F-bum, The Bachelor, the GPOOE, and Musbooger on a regular basis?
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I had directv since the early 90s and cut them off last year. I haven’t missed it one bit.
Would be sorely disappointed to lose the AU UGA game, though.
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I don’t have cable, Dish, Direct, etc. I watch movies on the DVD, TV shows on my computer and a good bit of sports on my computer too.
Big games I watch with family.
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No cable or dish here. Installed a little rooftop Mohu antenna that picks up stuff from many miles away and then we spend the savings from cable on drinks and food at the local pub to watch the Dawgs when they aren’t on broadcast TV at home.
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I’ve been think about doing this as well. Hows the Mohu working?
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Noticed I used the words, “aren’t usually” above. Yes there are those like the several who have posted here that are college football fans who have cut the cord but you are the exceptions. Most people do not go to sports bars to watch games each weekend. If it were a larger majority that did there would be many more sports bars in existence. Millions of people watch college football most of them still have a Pay TV service to watch college football.
The model is changing but not as rapidly as it would seem.
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The younger generation is cutting the cord faster than you think. They have dropped their landlines already and stream a lot of content.
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As somebody mentioned the other day, put Kentucky and Mizzou in the west. Then move Auburn and Bama to the East. Or does that make too much sense to do ?
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The only problem then is the fact that the east would be STACKED and the west would have LSU and maybe AM if they can stay competitive post-johnny football.
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Yeah, move the weakest team in the East an an East upstart to the West and in exchange move teams that won 4 out of the last 5 BCSNCs (and lost in the last one) to the East in their place. Hand LSU the West on a plate every year and make Georgia have to fight, fight, fight like hell against Auburn, Bama, Florida, South Carolina and UT just to get into the SECCG. Great idea.
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Too much sense?? LSU loves it. While we are at it can we include Vandy to the west and move A&M to the east also. Now that would be a division worth winning!
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Its really dollar vs dollar here. We will go to nine games and preserve rivalries IF they figure a tougher schedule and an additional SEC loss won’t keep them out of the payout for a National Championship.
If the 9 game scheulde is a possible money loser, they will fall back on adding another home cupcake game that happens annually (no alternating home and away) and doesn’t threaten the job security of our well compensated SEC coaches. Maybe a few teams will choose a compelling home and away, but most wont.
Either way, the money is arguing with itself here. To think the fans or tradition has any say here is just a pipe dream.
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“doesn’t threaten the job security of our well compensated SEC coaches” or the Athletic Directors and Presidents who hired them or are stuck with them.
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Well it’s almost here. Semi-pro.Thank you very much Mr. Saban. And THANK YOU Larry for those great Georgia vs Auburn calls.: “Look at the Sugar Falling out of the the Sky”…. Goal to go on the 9- and we give it to Edwards, he needs a block he’s going wide around the corner,he dives, TOUCHDOWN! …“-Oh God a Touchdown…
My youngest son enters law school,Class of 2017. His career sights are on College Sports and law. Somehow I think those days are gone. It semi-pro law now. We road tripped to the first Missouri game. A big deal to him. On the road. Hmmm. I confess I wasn’t excited about visiting Missouri. I’m old school and don’t see them as an SEC school. We went. Had a great time. NOW GET OFF MY LAWN!
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Tooth Fairy…What an appropriate name. Don’t cry…
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The 4 affected schools are going to be outvoted by the other 10 in the name of schedule variety for TV. I so look forward to trading the South’s Oldest Rivalry for regular trips to Starkville and Fayetteville along with the every other year trips to Columbia West. I would still rather play Auburn every year more than more frequent games times against Bama, LSU and A&M.
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If we go to Starkville, will there be plywood?
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Maybe Pulpwood 🙂
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Lord, I miss Pulpwood! Is he still with the livin?
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yes, UGA blogger Pat Garbin interviewed him within the past couple years as I recall.
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Sounds like he’s really fighting hard to keep tradition alive. I wonder if he’ll be awake enough when he casts his vote to remember which option to pick.
The Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry and the Third Saturday in October are getting flushed down the toilet. Absolutely incredible.
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I think we should just swap Missouri for Auburn, straight up. Then it’ll be the Iron Bowl the suits are doing away with. Bama fans would be okay with that, right?
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Give Nick a second to think about it.
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That’s funny over there DIF! Unleash the Nicken the most feared monster of them all!!
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I think there should be discussion of playing the inter-division rivalry games every other year
Positives:
– could then still play every West opponent within a 4 year playing career.
– would also get to play Auburn both home and away in any 4 year span
As long as they keep the 8 game schedule this makes the most sense to me.
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Why cancel a series that has been continuous for 115 years except for 2 world wars? Just so LSU and Florida don’t have to play each other every year. No thanks.
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LSU moaning about playing Florida every year has merit when you consider that Bama has had the worn out Vols. But Auburn probably has more reason to bitch than anyone because Georgia has been the most consistently good team in the East since Richt got here…yes, even in the several of the years the Gators won.
Hate them or not, we have not heard Auburn moaning like the LSU folks have (or South Carolina, but that’s a different story).
Go to 9 games. Require everyone to play two BCS level out of conference teams and keep one cupcake. We keep the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry and get rid of some of the garbage on our home schedule.
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9 games has it’s own set of scheduling challenges. Due to Jacksonville, we will never get the 5 conference home games. If they lay out the schedule with UF and our interests not at heart, we could end up with 3 conference home games. With 9 conference games, Jax and Tech, there’s no way you see a Clemson or Notre Dame on the schedule any more and likely no neutral site kick-off games because you have to 6 or 7 home games per year.
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9 conference games…4 at home, 4 on the road, and 1 in Jax. Or 5 at home, 3 on the road, and 1 in Jax…with 3 at home, 5 on the road, and 1 in Jax the following year to balance it out.
So you have 3 schedule formats there (4/4/1, 5/3/1, and 3/5/1). That’s one more format to work with than what they have now (4/3/1 and 3/4/1).
This is a non-issue.
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You are correct – we would need to make sure that UF agrees to whatever format it takes because they are in the same boat.
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But I agree that McGarity is unlikely to put a Clemson or Notre Dame or neutral site kick-off game on the schedule if we go to 9 conference games.
My point was in response to you saying that we’ll never get 5 conference home games but then also saying that we could end up with 3 conference home games.
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good points
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But hey, at least we get to play Mizzou every year y’all!
Hello?
Y’all still here?
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Woo-hoo! They are Tigers, too, so there’s no difference. We should be so happy. That’s the line that $live will try to run by us …
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First comment here after 2 years of daily reading. 2001 grad and 04 double dawg. This potential loss is sad, if you view the rivalry as something more permanent than a season. It bonds us as fans . We always want championships, but rivalries tie the bind far more than championships. We will never forget our sec titles, but every year, we anguish over the outcome a few, special games, no matter where we may end up in the East. Each individual year, the titles are more important, of course, but the rivalries give us something to cheer for in down years, and as the cherry on top in great years. Long live the rivalry!
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Thanks for reading and thanks for joining in the conversation, Jeff. Don’t wait two more years for your next comment. 😉
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The more I hear outta Ol’ Jere the less I like the guy.
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Auburn Tiger here, grew up in Americus and Montezuma. It is complete idiocy that these morons are even considering this. The rivalries are what matter, those NC’s don’t come along very often. Jeff in Charlotte has got it right.
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Here’s my email to the athletic department today:
Athletics department personnel,
Please pass this along with your other opinions on scheduling and the future of SEC football and Georgia Football:
I hope I’m not the only season ticket holder to contact you about my concern with the direction of SEC football, particularly in the area of scheduling. I’ve seen the comments in the news and press releases about the possibility of doing away with cross divisional rivalry games. It seems that it boils down to only 4 schools that care to keep these rivals: Georgia, Alabama, Auburn, and Tennessee. I understand the lack o interest from the other schools as their cross division yearly games were made up rivalries when the league expended to 12 teams and changed again when it expanded to 14. I also understand that UGA’s leaders are in favor of keeping the rivalry games, but are talking cautiously about the safety of these games because the votes may be in favor of eliminating them.
I wasn’t excited about the addition of SC and Arkansas in the 1990s, but OK, there in the south and we get a championship game (which propels the champ to national title hopes but puts the loser behind other SEC teams that did not win their division ahead of them in bowl selection, but I digress). I certainly wasn’t excited going to 14 teams mainly due to fear of the scheduling problems that did occur to the fact that playing Missouri every year just seemed awkward and unappealing to me (no offense, I like Mizzou and had a great experiencer at the game there). Now you tell me we may play Mizzou every year and have to dump the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry.
I’m not a knee-jerk complainer and nor do I have I in the past threaten things like “I’m mad at that radio show sports guy and will never listen to his show again” type person. That is why it saddens me I do now say, if this rivalry with Auburn is thrown away (when there is a chance with both facing each other in a championship game would make it the Souths Oldest Rivalry) for the convenience of scheduling teams we have absolutely no history with, I will give up season tickets and just watch on TV. This is just the last straw on many other things that I’ve resolved myself to apathy.
Going to the games, in my opinion, has lost a lot of it’s flavor:
tailgating is much harder and seems like all campus lots are pass lots (and I do have such a pass, but it’s not where I want to be as I have to haul all of my tailgate stuff uphill on the sidewalk to anther lot in order to tailgate with everyone else in my party),
though there is no excuse for lazy, trashy tailgaters, much of the complaining over trash on north campus which change tailgating could have been handled with more trash cans and a bit perhaps a bit more staff on campus to help with this – at least lazy people could be encouraged to pick up their trash when they could see the garbage can and not an already doubly overstuffed garbage can
in-game experience has become advertising paradise instead of mixing it with scores of other games, etc.;
the Red Coat Band is downplayed for pumped-in music (which the pumped-in music isn’’t a bad thing, its just that its a bit too much and now I might as well be at a Falcons game but without the beer to make me forget that I miss the college atmosphere (with a band)
I could ramble on. My point is, when the fan (and especially an alumni) becomes just an open wallet or even worse, expendable because the desires of the TV executives is more important and we can just change trradition on a simple vote from this lost generation of leaders in terms of respecting what was good about football (i.e., come on a 15 yard penalty even though replay says no foul?, Mizzou as a permanent game instead of Auburn?, move teams from conference to conference (not SEC, but Notre Dame in the ACC? . . . on and on) then I say I’m now just going to watch what the TV executives made you do from in front of my TV. I’d say I’d quit watching all together, but that’s improbable b/c I enjoy watching the team, I’m just not going to pay for it anymore with season tickets (driving to the game, dragging tailgate gear all over the place, watching cupcake games, waiting in log lines at concessions b/c the volunteers aren’t skilled at running a high volume concession, deal with disgusting bathrooms) when the game is leaving the fans behind.
Dr. _______ _______ _________
Alumni
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Well said although it’s sad that we’re having to resort to this to maintain one of the best traditional rivalries in college football … sigh.
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Sorry for the typo’s. I wanted to type this fast as I to prepare call to be on at 8:30, too badd I cannot edit the comment. The thoughts are accurate, though.
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AU grad here and love the AU – Georgia series.
My dad, an AU grad took me to my 1st Georgia game in 1963, 8 yrs old
I can remember when you could see the fans on the bridge watching the game in Stanford
To throw this great series away for a few more $$ is very sad
AU has the toughest row to hoe in keep traditional rivals and AU wants
the UGA series because it means something.
Very sad day indeed
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The best thing to do is to keep the pressure on the Auburn side. Maybe something UT, Bama, AU, and UGA alumni and fans can agree on is to refuse to buy the SEC Network if the South’s Oldest Rivalry and the 3rd Saturday in October get sacrificed.
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I say we find a way to remove Morehead and McGarity as UGA’s representatives at this meeting and replace them with Samuel Jackson and Herschel Walker. The door is locked and no one leaves until there’s “agreement.” Now how can we make that happen?
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