Yesterday’s post about the eight-game SEC schedule led to a mini-debate in the comments about how Georgia would be short-changing itself if it went to a nine-game conference schedule and kept the game against Florida in Jacksonville. The problem I have with the argument that it would be bad for Georgia is that it asks me to adopt a perspective that I shouldn’t be expected to take.
What I mean by that is that I’m not the AD. Nor the head coach. Nor the school president. I don’t spend money on Georgia football as an investment. It’s not a business decision for me. I’m a fan. College football is entertainment for me. That I should buy in to the idea that I’m supposed to spend my money in a way that benefits the program first, local businesses second and me third is just bizarre. If I go to a concert, I don’t appreciate the performance more knowing that the venue or the promoter is making a bigger profit. So why should I accept scheduling Charleston Southern on a Saturday in late November as something that’s good for me to spend my entertainment dollars on?
Even more than that, why am I supposed to accept the underlying premise for that – Greg McGarity’s scheduling dichotomy?
“While it might have been exciting to fans, it did not yield a championship,” McGarity said. “So one could argue that in order to put yourself in the best spot, what model works best.”
When it comes to the four games not against SEC opponents, I can have entertainment or I can have wins, but not both? Screw that. Why should Butts-Mehre not be held accountable for doing what it can to give me both? Why can’t McGarity share this perspective?
Tennessee athletic director Dave Hart was a proponent of the SEC moving to nine conference games, but that wasn’t the result of the vote.
He cited the changing dynamics on college football in an interview with The Sports Animal 99 in Knoxville, but has accepted the conference decision to stick with eight.
“I favored it because of the shift in the paradigm,” Hart said. “We haven’t had a year where we’re in a playoff mode. Strength of schedule remains to be seen just how strong the committee weight they will put. We think it will be considerable weight. Those who did not favor nine would argue that our strength of schedule is already very strong. There are other conferences that have gone to nine. … I just looked at it from a fan perspective and the changing paradigm in intercollegiate athletics and college football.
“I thought, the more meaningful games we could play moving forward, the better chance we would have to play in front of full stadiums, continue to play in front of great crowds, which this conference has been known for for many years.”
Most of the big issues college football faces right now involve us fans peripherally. But this one doesn’t. It’s about us and what we’re willing to put up with. I shouldn’t have to defend Dawg fans enjoying the entire Cocktail Party experience – damn, that’s a feature about Georgia football, not a bug. And I shouldn’t have to accept a pathetic 2015 home non-conference slate because that’s what McGarity thinks is in everyone’s best interest.
But maybe that’s just me. So here’s a reader poll. I’d also love to hear your comments about this. Particularly those of you spending your bread on Georgia football games.
Get The Picture 
With that pathetic 2015 out of conference schedule we better go undefeated if we want to make a playoff.
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A 1 or 2 loss SEC winner is a sure thing..
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There’s still time to swap ULM for Charleston Southern and have 3 of a kind.
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Again, I’ll simply point out that NONE of the most memorable games on anybody’s list was a beat down of an over matched team. From the standpoint of a fan, cupcakes suck.
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au contraire.
2002 Tech, 2011 & 2012 Auburn are some of my faves
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And 2012 Tech …
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The worst part of cupcake games is how Georgia always seems to play down to those opponents. I find those games more frustrating than entertaining.
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You lost me when you cited Dave Hart for your position 😉
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If anybody should be worried about getting fannies in the seats, it’s the UT athletic director. 😉
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I am sure he is worried. I am also equally sure if he says go left, for the love of all that is holy go right! lol
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+1
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Wonder if the Bammer faithful complain much about their 2014 OCS?
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They say what Dear Leader tells them to say.
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Who composed the subtitles to the Dear Leader theme song,
“No Motherland Without You”:
a. Bear Bryant;
b. Nick Saban;
c. Paul or
d. Kim Jong-Il
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As I’ve said before, I’m a Georgia fan that enjoys rivalries and interesting match ups. The easiest path to the NC (a NC that depends on a few factors beyond a programs control) ranks lower than this.
Now McGarity wants us to support the ‘cupcakes for playoffs’ campaign 2015. If his gamble pays off, we make the 4 game playoff and then we will have some compelling matchups. But that won’t happen every year, so suck it up and enjoy the cupcake I guess.
Do you think he is really responding to Richt naysayers who continually beat the lack of NC drum while ignoring where he has taken the program? I went to school during the Goff Donnan era and honestly I am ok where the program is now, given the recent changes Richt has needed to make in order to keep the program legitimate.
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Obviously, I’m for the cocktail party as well. I was in Nashville a couple of years ago when the cocks played Vanderbilt on Thursday night. A cock buddy was in town and we went to dinner the night before the game. He got to talking about how we were so fortunate (as if we were cheating) that we didn’t have either bama or LSU on the schedule. I told him that I wish we played them both. You don’t deserve to be champions if you don’t play and beat the good teams. His father (also a cock) was with us and just nodded his head up and down. The only good thing about the cupcakes is that when your kids are small and cute, you can walk them around the stadium holding up fingers and get free tickets.
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All I know is that after being a season ticket holder for 15 years and not getting my crappy seats moved once, if they don’t move this year, I’m not re-upping for 2015. I’ll take that money and spend it on good seats for the 2-3 games I’ll actually care about.
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Have you requested they move your tickets? I assumed (wrongly) the would automatically move them if eligible for better seats but if you don’t request that they be moved, they will leave you where you are. I requested a change last year and we moved closer to the field and closer to the 50. I did so again this year and hope we see another improvement.
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Every year.
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Weird. I have had my tickets moved, they have called me and asked if I wanted to get the seat beside mine when it opened up, I have split the tickets, moved again, They must not like you. Been a season ticket holder for just 11 years.
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There is just nothing new here. Fans want every game to be the super bowl. Coaches want their team to be able to complete the season and ADs want butts in seats. This is the same ole preseason argument for the NFL.
There is no advantage for being the one with your neck on the line in college football. If the playoff scenarios dont work out in your favor, then schedules will change, but everyone else changed their schedule to match the SEC’s strength. No need for the SEC to move the bar when they dont have to.
As for the entertainment aspect and my season tickets, I know what I am getting into when I send in the money. I like the November breather because it means bringing my kid and introducing him to the game day slowly. I like the idea of getting guys a blow, I like cupcakes because they are tradition.
Maybe you guys should start your own college football program instead of trying to change this one.
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Cupcakes aren’t really that traditional. No more so than the SEC championship. Go back and look at UGA’s schedule from the 60’s through the mid 80’s. In 1980 UGA played: UT, Texas A&M, Clemson, TCU, Ole Miss, Vandy, KY, USCe, UF, AU and Tech. Some of those programs were dog meat, but that’s true now. There are usually plenty of cupcakes within the SEC schedule.
Big picture, the season expanded it and almost all programs took that opportunity to fill the slots with body bag games.
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Exactly, Connor. In 1980 Texas A&M went 6-5 that season (Georgia beat ’em 45-0) and really wasn’t very good before or after for years. TCU was the bottom team in the SWC, the Kentucky of that conference. Both of those teams came to Athens for the $$ without the requirement of a return engagement at their place. A cupcake of a different flavor is still a cupcake. Now teams like that from a major conference won’t come to Athens without a return game at their stadium. That’s why we have to play the Charleston Southerns of the world now–to avoid the away game that screws up our schedule in the future.
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3rd option would be to have better cupcakes. How interesting a school can we get that wouldn’t require a home and away?
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You can get some MAC schools like Toledo or Kent State but you won’t get any BSC conference schools.
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Yep. I think it even may be a conference rule with the ACC, Big 10, PAC 12 and Big 12. If you play one of those teams they expect you to go to their place. I favor better cupcakes to the best of our ability to get them without a return engagement in a future season. The MAC, AAC, Mountain West or WAC are good candidates. The other thing–if we are going to play true cupcakes we need to play in-state cupcakes keeping the $$ in Georgia thereby benefiting those in-state programs. We are playing Georgia Southern on a semi-regular basis already. We probably ought to consider adding Georgia State to that mix. Again, I prefer better teams than that, but instead of Charleston Southern, Georgia Southern or Georgia State would be a better alternative IMHO.
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Could we get Army, Navy, Air Force, Brigham Young, Yale (especially in 2028), Grambling, or similar schools here without a home and home? Those schools are followed nationally and get a fair amount of ink, and while the game itself may be no more interesting than the other cupcakes, the runup to the game might be more fun.
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I am not a season ticket holder, but have been in the past. I stopped b/c of my current station in life (young kids) and that I live too far away to make it to more than a few games a year. That said, if I still lived in Atl, I don’t think I would buy season tickets. I would certainly go to more games, but the cost/benefit is just not there. I can always get tickets, and even if I pay more for a big game, I still come out better at the end of the year.
I enjoy taking the kids to a cupcake game each year- tailgate, easy walk to stadium, band plays, UGA scores a bunch, and you can usually leave when the kids get restless after halftime without missing much. That type of game is a feature to me. But it is only a feature once annually. With the cost continuing to go up and the restrictions on the experience, I have no interest in attending cupcake games other than to let the kids experience it once a year.
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wnc dawg, my current situation is similar to yours, except my kids are now in or approaching college age. So the question for me soon will be: season tickets or just keep going to a couple of games a year? Given the extra travel involved, the season games would have to be damned compelling–and the Sanford experience would have to get a lot better–for me to go to the first option.
I’d like to throw another wrinkle into this conversation. While no longer a resident of Athens, I’m originally from the area, have family there and love the town. So the impact to the local economy does mean something to me. But here’s how I see that: compelling games not only fill seats, they bring in ticket buying hopefuls who may wind up without tickets but do fill local bars, restaurants, hotels, etc. I don’t know exactly what the comparison would be between one less home game (6 instead of 7) and x% fewer attendees due to overall declining game quality, but at some point I’d think there’s a diminishing return from a steady cupcake diet. It isn’t just that hosting Clemson will pump a lot more $ into the local economy than hosting East Yawnee State, but that the overall decline in product discourages season ticket sales AND overall demand for all games. Plus, the more publicity the Classic City–and UGA–get from greater TV exposure with better games can only be good. The loyal UGA fan who tunes into even the ULM game won’t learn anything he doesn’t already know about Athens or UGA; the more general sports fan may say “that looks like a great place to send my kid.”
In short: what’s good for fan viewing (a net pick up of at least 1 more exciting game vs net loss of 1-2 yawners) is not necessarily bad for the local economy or UGA and may be better.
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The flip side being we play Boise or Clemson and lose. Until it’s proven to me a team will be rewarded for playing tough teams and losing as opposed to playing no one and winning, I’ll stick to the latter. Bama does it perfectly. Schedule a good name, not a good team, don’t play on the road and voila!
I like the big games a lot, but the risk-reward still isn’t in play, and I’d rather play 2 patsies and be 11-1 then play a great team and be 10-2. Now, if the new playoff does what it says it will do and reward playing Clemson or whomever, that’s different. However I’m still very skeptical.
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That’s automatic, eh?
It’s just as automatic as assuming that playing Charleston Southern gets Georgia in the playoffs.
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Well the “Grind” getting you eventually has been drilled into SEC fans for decades. So yeah, for most everyone the thinking is that adding 1 more good team increases the odds of a loss more than it increases your chances of getting into the playoffs.
It would be one thing if UGA wasnt scheduling the big name home and homes, but we went down that road with really good teams and it never resulted in a title game appearance. UGA has already been scheduling on the very high end of SEC schedules for the last decade. And now you want more.
Are you not entertained?
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Ask me next season.
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There was a link in a post on this very blog there other day that showed that UGA played more top level OOC games than any other school in the SEC. The Dawgs can’t be expected to play an OOC schedule each year of ND, Texas, Southern Cal and Georgia Tech, particularly on a home and away basis. Nobody in the nation, not only the SEC, does that. And if the Dawgs did, the same people who are bitching now about the cupcakes would be bitching about the losses. I’m looking directly at you, Senator.
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Seriously, is that what you think I’m expecting?
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No, but some on this blog have actually said things not far from that in the past. You, on the other hand, just want better OOC games but in order to play the type of teams you want (Big Five conference teams) those games have to be home and away. That means going to home and away with Florida to not screw up the Georgia home games schedule. You don’t want to do that. Be realistic, Senator. You just can’t have it both ways.
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It doesn’t. Georgia is designated as the home team in Jax every other year.
Though I suspect what you’re really talking about is losing a game in Athens every other year. As I’ve already indicated, that’s a price I’m willing to pay if it means lopping a cupcake game off the schedule.
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“….that’s a price I’m willing to pay if it means lopping a cupcake off the schedule.” No, Senator. You can’t have it both ways. You said yesterday that you would be willing to accept a 5 game home schedule every other year if you could get rid of a cupcake and replace it with a Big 5 conference OOC game. That doesn’t work, either financially or for viewing opportunities for the vast majority of fans. This is, in reality, a contest between the “haves” and the “have-nots.” The “haves” have tickets to the WLOCP every year. The “have-nots” don’t. There are 37,500 “haves.” There are MANY more have-nots.” Basically you and the “haves” don’t GAS about what is best for the team’s chances of winning or the team’s scheduling difficulties and you don’t care about equity in ticket availability for the “have-nots.” It’s all just about having a fun trip to the beach in the fall. Shame on you, Senator. Shame, shame, shame.
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I don’t order UF tickets anymore for a lot of reasons but primarily that it’s too far from eastern North Carolina and too expensive for a weekend to make the trip because 4-5 tickets, the travel costs, and the time off isn’t worth it to me. I can afford it but choose not to purchase it. All that said, I don’t want the game moved out of Jacksonville to end another of the truly great traditions of college football.
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You make a legitimate point ee. If we are going to keep the WLOCP in Jax, then we ought to make some other SEC teams do likewise–screw up their schedules, too. I think Bama ought to play LSU in the Superdome every year. Call it the WLICP. Let’s make the Dicks…er…Cocks play Mizzou in Kansa City at Arrowhead every year. Make Auburn play A&M in Dallas at Jerry’s World each season. Come to think of it make Auburn play Bama in Birmingham at Legion Field every year…er…wait…what?
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It’s not automatic, but sadly it’s more likely given the recent (5-7 years) track. I was and am excited about Clemson, but let’s be honest, the plan to play good teams or travel to new areas hasn’t worked out so well. And while I agree the big games are more exciting, winning trumps it, and I’ve grown tired of seeing UGA become a second-tier (at best) SEC program. We’re not Bama where we can go toe-to-toe with anyone. Do I like McGarrity’s “Florida-ization” of the schedule? No. I would prefer to never play an FCS school and instead play more teams like Fresno State and South Florida. Then every other year play a Clemson or the like. But at this point I’m about winning titles, something UGA has epically failed to do, and I don’t believe scheduling tough when you already play Aub, Florida, SoCar, Mizzou and Tenn every year is needed to do that. If the new committee proves that belief false, that’s different, but I am very skeptical.
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How many years can you point to when scheduling cost Georgia a crack at a national title?
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2011, losing to Boise State. If the Dawgs open with a cupcake they are 11-1 going into the SECCG and maybe the refs don’t start throwing laundry all over the field when it looks like the Dawgs might beat LSU. Win the SECGC and the Dawgs are in the BCSNCG.
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You think Georgia lost to LSU by 32 points because of the refs? Sure thing, Mayor.
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Georgia was leading that game right before the half until LSU ran back a punt for a TD. Replay showed that there were 2 BIBs on the return. Same for the return early in the second half that set up a TD for LSU. Sure the score got out of hand in the second half with the refs basically letting LSU get away with murder and also playing “drop the hanky” with the Dawgs. Without that BS it’s a much closer game and maybe the Dawgs win it.
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I can’t, but that doesn’t mean you should put yourself in a spot which would create an instance. Until I see a team go 11-1 in the SEC (12-1 if they win in ATL) and NOT get into the playoff, I’ll agree with scheduling up. That day isn’t happening, though. The league itself is too good—and it has ESPN promoting it—for that to be an issue. Beat Florida, Auburn, GaTech, South Carolina, Tennessee and Missouri and all is well. Go 5-1 against that stretch and beat LSU, Bama, or Aub again in Atlanta and you’ll never have to worry.
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As you mentioned in your comment above, UT has a major attendance problem. That drives their position. They’ve got money woes and they need fannies in the seats. A better non-conference schedule helps with that.
Yes, we spend out money basically for entertainment purposes, but I think you need to look at this with a wider view. It stinks to play these lesser teams, but you still have the fan experience: a game day at your favorite school, a win – in other words, the entire experience isn’t bad.
Alabama has played a pretty big non-conference game each year since Saban has been here. That’s fine by me, even if the games aren’t usually at home. But I also understand that the other three cannot be huge games. Physically and emotionally it’s unreasonable to expect a team to get up for that many big games. It’s unreasonable for a fan to expect as much, too.
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I understand both sides of the debate, but I think there’s certain financial realities with regards to a certain number of home games that are what they are (speaking as an LSU fan/analyst I know they’re in trouble budget-wise without 7 home games — I can’t speak for Georgia though).
To me, the larger issue is the obvious fact that the league office can’t be trusted to administer a 9-game schedule in a way that the ADs trust so that the conference schedule will alternate for the teams that have an automatic non-conference road game every other year.
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While I would never advocate for an end to the Tech game or Jacksonville, we all have to admit that these 2 games restrict our flexibility in scheduling. We can’t schedule an OOC powerhouse home/home every year. Alabama can do the opening weekend neutral site game because they don’t have a WLOCP and their rivalry games are all in the SEC. I hate the ’15 home schedule, but my season tickets will be pried out of my cold, dead hands. I may not get the best value on a yearly basis, but I’m proud to be a season ticket holder.
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“We can’t schedule an OOC powerhouse home/home every year. Alabama can do the opening weekend neutral site game because they don’t have a WLOCP and their rivalry games are all in the SEC.” ^^THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM.
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Mayor, I hope you’re being complementary. I didn’t see a sarcasm font there. 😉
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I AM being complimentary. This is the very reason that Bama can play the OOC games it does and exactly why Georgia cannot!
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I thought so – glad that we’re on the same page …
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There is a happy median out there. I have no issue with a single cup cake and in fact think that is the right way to go. Two is tolerable if somewhat less appealing. Three should be embarrassing to anyone who really calls themselves a fan. I just don’t get this craving for those garbage games. And the idea because we have had problems in the last 4 road games against major opponents not named Tech has cost us a national championship is patently absurd…two of those losses came in Richt’s two worst years and we lost plenty of games to conference foes then too.
It boggles my mind how the 1980 National Champs could play 6 SEC opponents; 2 SWC opponents, 1 ACC opponent and 2 major independents and not constantly bemoan this woe is unto me whining. Sure the SEC is tough, but we have our cupcakes too. Kentucky generally sucks. Vandy has been up but look for them to be back to being Vandy. Ask Oregon how tough Tennessee has been lately. Miss State wows everyone by going to a bowl game, yet are 2-6 in conference play. If it weren’t for consistently playing one of the biggest jokes of a schedule in CFB, they wouldn’t ever go to a bowl game.
My true preference would be 9 conference games, Tech and an alternating between tough OOC teams (i.e., Texas, Ohio State, ND, FSU, Clemson) and decent but not great programs like North Carolina or UCLA or Okie State or Arizona or Iowa. Since we have only 8, we should as a minimum play Tech and one team with a national reputation. USC, ND and other schools play 6-7 home games a year and do ok when it comes to making money. Supposedly the WLOCP is such a good financial deal that it offsets playing home and home. If true, I don’t get the whining.
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2010 Season
Georgia had 6 home games (LA Lafayette, Arkansas, Tennessee, Vandy, Idaho State and Tech) and made just shy of $71M in football revenue. We were the “home” team in Jacksonville. Auburn, with a slightly smaller seating capacity made $66M in football revenue with 8 home games (Ark State, Clemson, South Carolina, Louisiana Monroe, Arkansas, UT Chattanooga, LSU and Georgia). Auburn also spent almost $10M more than Georgia on football that year.
Alabama was the only school to make more revenue than Georgia in 2010 while playing 7 home games (San Jose St, Penn State, Florida, Ole Miss, Miss State, Georgia State and Auburn). Their stadium seats almost 10K more than Sanford. Their home schedule had some clunkers but was better than ours for sure. Despite that Alabama made a mere $1M in revenue from football than Georgia did.
I agree with the Mayor when it comes to the WLOCP. It ain’t a home game. I could care less if we won 20 in a row, it truly isn’t neutral either. But if the bean countrers are right, we make out much better financially than we would in a home and home.
In 2010 Georgia was 2d in the SEC in pure football revenue yet 7th in expenditures. Nationally, we were 2d in profit margin only to Texas. Argue all you want about cupcakes being better for national championship opportunities, but the number of home games is having minimal, if any impact on the overall health of the program.
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Senator, just brainstorming over the concern of nine league games yielding 5 road games per year as a concern. I’m all for playing 9 league games. What are your thoughts of the SEC creating more neutral site league games? These could be “SEC TV games each week” and site to host the pregame show if there’s not a huge game already scheduled.What do you think of these sites? Could be rotated annually or left in one of the cities listed. Keeps even 4-4-1 home-home-neutral.
Georgia-Florida in Jacksonville
LSU-Texas A&M in Houston/New Orleans
Kentucky-Mississippi State in Nashville/Memphis
Ole Miss-Alabama in Birmingham/Memphis
South Carolina-Tennessee in Charlotte/Atlanta
Auburn-Arkansas in Birmingham/Little Rock
Missouri-Vanderbilt in St. Louis/Nashville (at Titans)
I know it will never happen, but fun to discuss.
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Personally, I think we should not schedule cupakes – it so 2011. This 2014! We need to schedule cronuts this year and for ice cream sandwiches for 2015.
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krunkin kronuts, baby
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Regarding the quality of opponents, I would only CONSIDER becoming a season ticket holder again if they permanently limited the number of cupcakes to 2. The 2015 schedule is unacceptable, as was the 2012 schedule.
There are other issues that also factor in to whether I would become a season ticket holder again, such as tailgating rules and kickoff times, but I won’t comment on those since that’s getting off the subject.
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Here’s where I come in. I blame Michael Adams
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Please tell me you’re kidding.
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I can’t even tell anymore
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I was going to vote in the poll and then weigh in on the situation in the comments…well, until I noticed only season ticket holders were allowed to have an opinion on the matter.
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Not true. It’s just that the perspectives are different. I’d like to hear what you think, Gravidy.
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I appreciate that the perspectives are different. I only attend a game or two a year, so my direct financial outlay is very small compared to you and other season ticket holders.
My opinion lies somewhere in between some of the extreme positions I’ve read here. I’d like to see fewer cupcakes. I like the home-and-home OOC conference games, although they haven’t worked out as well as I would have hoped. Although I think your position that you should be able to expect to have those big games and win them is a bit unrealistic. Anyone who wants to see those games has to go into that situation prepared to lose a few.
Furthermore, I’d like to see the conference go to a nine game schedule. Playing nine SEC games plus Tech and another big OOC opponent in some years would only leave room for one cupcake, and I’m fine with that.
The notion that UGA should schedule three cupcakes every year to maximize their chances at a national title doesn’t resonate with me. There is only one national champ every year. Dumbing down the schedule every year on the very small hope that the team might win a national title once every decade or so is a fool’s errand, in my opinion.
Lastly, here is where I most sharply disagree with you. I think the Florida game should be played home and home – or at least moved to different “neutral” sites on a rotating basis. I’m not going to pursue this argument with you or anyone else, because it would be pointless. However, I will say that playing in the Gator Bowl every year is not now (nor has it ever been) a neutral site, regardless of which team wins. Playing that game in that stadium every year is great for the few fans who attend every year. But for the vast majority of the rest of us who don’t regularly attend, it is just another road game on the schedule.
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Amen, amen, amen.
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Your post was insightful on many levels, Grav, and I mostly agree with you. I thought that there should have been an option for non-season ticket holders to vote, too. The vote results get scewed when that big a block is left out of the tabulations. Instead of “I’m not a season ticket holder” the options should have include the same 2 as the season ticket holders with the addition of identifying the answerer as not being a season ticket holder. That would have the benefit of showing if there is a difference of opinion between season ticket holders and non-season ticket holders on this issue. Not criticizing, just pointing that out.
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I’m not sure how I feel on this one, but to be fair, I’m not a season ticket holder. What would be your dream ooc slate? I’d like to play some traditional powers with great stadiums, but not sure how many I’d like to see per year.
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It doesn’t make any difference what schedule UGA plays, as long as McGarity and Richt call the shots, and, as long as the current SEC head coaches are leading their respective teams, UGA, or should I say Richt, won’t win an SEC Championship anyway. So what difference does it make how many cupcakes UGA plays? UGA still has to play eight conference games, which is what counts.
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UGA won’t win an SEC championship with Mark Richt, but we would with “_______________”.
Please fill in the blank while I erase 2002 and 2005 from my memory.
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The less than desirable home schedule the last few years is what led me to the decision of dropping my season tickets. Over and above the cost of the tickets and donation to the Hartman fund I was spending money on a babysitter for the kids and most of the time taking a day off from work in the process. I just didn’t see the “value” in going to all that trouble to watch the Dawgs beat East Bumblescrew State 55-0. I remember when we first got our tickets you could count on at least 2-3 “big” games a year at home, now we are lucky if we get one (2013 is the exception). The 2015 slate is absolutely pathetic and if we don’t get in the playoff because of it then we have no one to blame but McFrugal and his merry bunch of men at BM.
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I’ve never been a season ticket holder, although I certainly could be. I’ve weighed the costs of becoming one several times over the years, but I’ve never pulled the trigger due to the reasons you stated. I don’t care to watch cupcake games, and I can get tickets to most of the games I really care about without having to buy all the others or having to contribute to the Hartman fund.
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If the Atlanta Braves truly want to bring a championship to Turner Field, they can put their National League team into the South Atlantic League. To me, that’s the equivalent of saying “we could go play a good team, but then we might not win a championship.” The 2011 LSU Tigers played Oregon and at West Virginia and played the SEC West and went undefeated in the regular season and got screwed into playing a team they’d already beaten for the national title. They were that good. If you’re a good team, you can win as many tough games as you need to. Playing Clemson in the 2002 opener wasn’t what made Georgia lose to Florida that year. Sack up. If your coaches and support staff manage to put together a championship team, then that team will win a championship. Know why Nick Saban is ringing the bell for a nine game SEC schedule? BECAUSE HE HAS THE TEAM.
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“If you’re a good team, you can win as many tough games as you need to” is so much more, well, bring-it-on-sumbitch-competitive than “While it might have been exciting to fans, it did not yield a championship.”
Mike Tyson, sumbitch that he no doubt was, WANTED to fight the best ’cause then everyone would know that HE was the best. Result of that (and his skill and aggression): a serious psychological edge that lasted until he got Don King-ized. Or to analogize to a couple of better boxing role models: Ali WANTED Frazier in Manila, even tho he’d already won the belt from Foreman and even tho he knew he was likely to pay a fearful price in the ring. Result: everyone knew Zaire was no fluke.
I don’t want to see my bulldog whimpering in the corner, hoping he won’t really have to take on another big critter. I want him lunging at showboating tigers all the damn time.
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Considering last year we played three tigers all in conference I would have thought you got your fill without worrying about the cupcakes.
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I think that nearly half the people who voted dont have season tickets and at least half of the ones that do threaten to give them up at the drop of a hat says something…I am not sure what it says, but considering how few people voted as happy with the current and foreseeable future situation seems like there are going to be some new ticket holders and some miserable folks in the stands.
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The season ticket requirement lost some votes. Because of scheduling and family time constraints, it is difficult for me to make more than 6 games or so a year. I’d rather spend my time and money on JAX and a couple of real games on the road than going to Athens for cupcakes.
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Good point. I’m curious to see what the fan reaction will be to the 2015 schedule come ticket ordering time.
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I attended UGA in the mid to late 70″s and 2015 looks to me like the worst schedule I have seen in my lifetime. I am old and I have CRS (Can’t Remember Stuff) but I do not recall a less compelling schedule. Ever.
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You are assuming the average po’ ole Dawg fan would prefer to see two boring cupcake games rather than one good contest in person and one good contest on TV.
The Jacksonville Question is completely separate from The Cupcake Question, and you can take any two sides from either question and still be consistent.
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My phone isn’t communicating with GTP today – this was in response to the Mayor’s comment at May 6, 2014 at 1:40 PM
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