“We hope our fans will be there.”

A data point for the suits in Butts-Mehre to ponder, if they’re not doing so already:

Although the announced attendance for that game was Georgia’s standard 92,746 — defined as tickets sold plus passes issued — the actual attendance counted by the hand-held ticket scanners at the gates was 53,646, according to figures obtained from UGA by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution via an open-records request.

Georgia officials said the announced attendance at each game includes about 4,000 people who don’t have tickets scanned, such as band members, recruits, media, players’ guests, student-athletes, stadium workers and team staffs. Even so, more than 30,000 people with tickets were no-shows for the Kentucky game — a reflection of the Bulldogs’ three losses in October and a poor weather forecast.

It was the smallest Sanford Stadium crowd since Georgia began using the electronic ticket scanners in the 2013 season, records show.

Weather, shmeather… that ain’t good.

Now, I would agree that attendance isn’t as important to the reserve fund as season ticket purchases, so let’s not go overboard.  But I’ve always said the biggest thing to fear if you’re watching the dollars is fan apathy.  There’s no way you can chalk up that many fans in absentia to anything else.

Before you go off on your aha! fire Mark Richt! horse, though, keep in mind if this has a huge bearing on his fate, it’s bound to have an equally large affect on who is hired as his successor.  A fan base unhappy or indifferent as to the next man in isn’t going to make those numbers look better, unless McGarity hits a (surprising for him) home run with the new coach and Georgia rattles off to a blazing start like Florida did with McElwain this year.

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Where’s the love, I ask you?

Hey, I thought you guys liked us!

What is this “nine-game” schedule you speak of?

Shorter Jay Clemons (the 2015 national winner for “Sports Blog Of The Year”, donchaknow):  When the college football playoffs are so awesome, who needs a decent conference schedule?

And by “who”, he doesn’t mean fans.

Collect them all!

While I’m on my high horse this morning, I thought I’d share something with you an alert reader sent me.

Check out the Georgia Bulldog toys you can buy here.  Todd Gurley, Knowshon Moreno, Jarvis Jones, Matthew Stafford and A.J. Green, all bedecked in red and black, school jersey numbers included.  So much for that “what’s on the front of the uniform is all that matters” stuff.

They’re all professionals now, so there’s no NCAA violation to worry about.  But, assuming those five were paid for their names – and if they weren’t, it’s time to go see a lawyer, boys – doesn’t that shred the whole “how could the schools ever figure out a way to pay student-athletes for their likenesses?” argument?

Sharing money is such a bother, though.  Can’t everyone just leave the schools alone about it?

The true meaning of amateurism

A couple of years ago, I touched on a hideous lawsuit filed against the NCAA in the wake of a Division III player’s death because… well, because some of his coaches were assholes, the school had no coherent policy regarding head injuries and the NCAA, for all its blathering about concern for the student-athlete, admitted it took no steps to monitor its member schools about that.

David Klossner, former NCAA director of health and safety, admitted as much in a deposition this year in an unrelated federal lawsuit challenging the NCAA’s concussion policy:

Q: Are member institutions required to submit their concussion management plans to the NCAA?

A: No.

Q: Have any member schools been disciplined regarding concussion management plans?

A: Not to my knowledge.

Q: Has the NCAA considered disciplining any member institutions regarding concussion management plans?

A: No, not to my knowledge.

In an interview with The Washington Times weeks before the deposition, Mr. Klossner and an NCAA representative said no university, to their knowledge, had been investigated or penalized for violating the rule.

A slew of internal NCAA emails made public in July from the unrelated case revealed an organization where staffers worried about liability and some mocked concerns about the issue.

If you look up the word “callous” in the dictionary, it’s accompanied by a picture of Mark Emmert.

I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t catch a more recent development in the case.  No, it hasn’t settled.  It hasn’t even gone to court yet.

That’s because the NCAA has done its best over the past couple of years to stonewall it.  And there’s where things have moved from callous to putrid. (h/t)

Last month, the NCAA asked a Montgomery County Circuit court judge to seal 14 documents in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the family of late Frostburg State University football player Derek Sheely.

The internal emails, memos and meeting minutes in question deal with the NCAA’s response to concussions, including research and proposed rule changes.

In court documents, the NCAA said that allowing the documents to be public “would have a chilling effect on the candid and frank debate necessary to ensure a thoughtful process” and “may be harmful to the NCAA’s legitimate business interests.”

Are you getting that?  Student-athletes, those noble amateurs, aren’t allowed to have business interests, but the NCAA’s half-assed approach to dealing with their well-being – that has to be weighed against its legitimate business interests.  What might those be, you ask?  Welp,

Disclosing the documents could damage “student health and safety” if “picked up by the media,” the NCAA said in the documents.

Legitimate?  I do not think that word means what you think it means.

Burn the whole joint down.  The sooner, the better.

Pay the man.

For those of you who’ve indulged yourselves making up Greg McGarity’s shopping list after he cans Mark Richt, keep in mind that HOT NAME isn’t gonna come without a fight, financially speaking.

Exhibit A:  Houston just proposed doubling Tom Herman’s salary to $3 million a year.  That’s after a whole ten games on the job.  Ten.

Which isn’t to say that Herman couldn’t do better at, say, Missouri, where the guy who hired him at Houston is now the AD.  But it’s also not to say that he won’t go anywhere without getting major bucks to do so.  All Houston has done is raise the height of the floor.

Whichever HOT NAME signs first this winter will set the market.  Jimmy Sexton will see to that.  Things will just take off from there in a feeding frenzy.

Does that sound to you like the kind of thing the Georgia Way does well?

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UPDATE:  Memphis looks to jack up Justin Fuente’s salary, too.