Is this what Bulldog ennui looks like?

One year ago, I posted this:

Second, while nobody at Butts-Mehre wants to acknowledge the possibility that there is a limit to our wallets’ generosity, you better believe somebody has taken notice of the fact that the cumulative Hartman Fund cut off score to renew the receipt of two season tickets fell from 6701 in 2015 to 1201 in 2016.  Sure, one season doth not a trend make, but in the wake of a coaching change supposedly jazzing up the fan base – #93k, good times, remember? – it doesn’t appear to reflect the sense of enthusiasm for the program that’s being pushed in many quarters.

With 2017’s impressive home schedule in mind, you can probably guess where this post is headed.

Hartman Fund donors with 550 priority points or higher who contributed a minimum of $275 per seat and requested renewable season tickets will receive them.

Over two years, that’s a drop off in qualifying points of more than 90%.  That still may not be a trend, but what label would you apply?  Given what little we know about the 2018 schedule — Austin Peay is currently Georgia’s opponent in the opener, be still my heart — it wouldn’t be a surprise if that trend, or however you want to refer to it, has some staying power.

I went on in that old post to write,

Moar sure:  yeah, win an SECCG or two and that fall will be arrested.  The question is, will that be enough in the years to come for Georgia fans to continue shelling out “more for what’s likely to be a lesser home schedule”?  We know Greg McGarity hopes that’s the case.  If it’s not, is there any more of a Plan B in place than expecting television revenues to make up the slack?  You know how impressed I’ve been with the business acumen of the athletic department, but, obviously, your mileage may vary there.

Maybe we’re in the middle of a controlled experiment to see how much we’re willing to put up with to attend Georgia football games.  (Apparently, it’s a fair amount.)  Without a trip to the SECCG and a compelling showing there, it’s hard to see where the athletic department goes to generate more excitement from the paying fan base.

It’s Nick Saban’s world, and he’s just living in it.

How’s this for a stat?

Fun fact: Alabama vs. Georgia would be the fourth straight SEC Championship Game in which Saban has faced either a former assistant or a former college teammate (see Gary Pinkel) for the conference title.

He’s the Kevin Bacon of SEC football.

Robbing the cradle

It’s absurd moments like this that make me really, really wish a scholarship offer could be immediately accepted and become binding on a school.

Today, in amateurism

Talk to the hand, kid.

On Saturday, June 10, De La Haye uploaded a new YouTube video titled, “Quit college sports or quit YouTube?”. In the video, the kicker showed up to a meeting at the football offices exclaiming he felt like it was Judgement Day.

“Everything’s going to go well,” he said in the video. “We’re just going to talk about ways that I can keep doing what I’m doing and follow the rules.”

It’s unclear who the meeting was with, but upon returning, De La Haye said he was basically given an ultimatum of choosing between football or YouTube videos.

“The meeting went well, but it didn’t go well at the same time,” he said. “Basically, I’m not allowed to make any money off of my YouTube videos. I’m working hard basically as a job — filming, editing and things of that sort, and I’m not allowed to make any money. If I do, then bad things happen for me. I feel like they’re making me pick between my passion for what I love to do shooting videos and entertaining and my other passion, playing football.”

Just like any other student, amirite?

Al.com’s preseason first and second team offensive players…

… as voted on by the league’s sports information directors.

When it comes to Georgia, I would say there are absolutely no surprises.

But, Michigan…

How many of you who cite Appalachian State’s 2007 upset of Michigan as a reason that Georgia could be in big trouble in its opener this season remember that the Dawgs pounded the Mountaineers to the tune of 45-6 in 2013?

Jonathan Crompton is Beyond Crompton about Vol fans.

I live for the chance to write the occasional header like that.

Musical quarterbacks

Man, this is something.

Transfer quarterbacks are nothing new for Florida, which has seen six of its own quarterbacks transfer since 2010 and had signal-callers Luke Del Rio and Austin Appleby transfer in to the program. So far, the players coming in haven’t done much more than the players going out, and Zaire is hoping that all changes with him.

Between that and little things like going through a couple of seasons without a position coach for wide receivers, it’s no wonder that Florida has struggled on offense lately.

“We don’t dance to their tune.”

Just when you thought the Ole Miss shitstorm couldn’t possibly get more popcorn-worthy…

A business in Oxford, Miss., has filed a civil complaint alleging defamation that could reverberate through the University of Mississippi’s ongoing NCAA case. Rebel Rags LLC, an Oxford-based clothing company, filed the complaint Friday in Lafayette County Circuit Court.

The suit alleges defamation in the NCAA testimony of two Mississippi State football players, Leo Lewis and Kobe Jones, and also Lindsey Miller, the estranged stepfather of former Rebel star Laremy Tunsil. In Ole Miss’s response to the NCAA’s notice of allegations last week, it attempts to deny the allegations that two recruits and the family member of a recruit—Lewis, Jones and Miller—received a total of $2,800 in gear from Rebel Rags.

Sports Illustrated spoke Sunday evening with Rebel Rags’s attorney, Charles Merkel, who explained that the store “has caught the broadside of lies.” The suit has yet to become public because it was filed on Friday afternoon and has yet to register in the court’s computer system.

There’s no way that case winds through the court system as quickly as the NCAA decides what to do with the school.  That can only mean one thing:  when does Ole Miss ask the NCAA to put its investigation on hold until Rebel Rags can get a little justice?

“Seems like the one year of punishment should be enough.”

It rarely is, momma.  It rarely is.

Sounds like you guys need to work the media harder.