Tasty cupcakes in Athens ain’t cheap. And the price is rising.
- Middle Tennessee State: $1.7 million for 2018
- Arkansas State: $1.8 million for 2019
- Kent State: $1.9 million for 2022
No worries, though. There’s plenty of time to push through another increase in ticket prices by 2022.
Get The Picture 
And the Georgia Southern AD had a point about this several weeks ago. I wouldn’t schedule them again, because once every five years they will have a team that will test you, but Georgia State, KSU, Mercer….let’s book them at less than half the cost.
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Do I hear 2 million? C’mon c’mon 2 million,
Fair warning . . going once . . . .
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Now is the time to schedule Miami of Ohio for a little revenge….it has been long enough.
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LOL! Yes, it has!
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Not sure I even want any of Kent State, the team that once fielded the great Jack Lambert. They have also once beat Rutgers….and Rutgers has beat Tennessee & Penn State before. Shat happens…we could be in for a big surprise…..ain’t looking past Kent State as some are, the Dawgs best not either……Miami of Ohio’s happen!
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Shoot, it’s the school that once fielded Little Nicky!
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Also, Lou Holtz & Gary Pinkel…..not sure if we know what we are really getting into.
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I was actually thinking about this the other day: We should go back and schedule games with teams with which we have a losing or even record. Those could actually be somewhat quality too: Syracuse, Wake Forest, Pittsburgh
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Concur….Wake Forest may have been the 2nd most embarrassing loss. Never forget a 157 lb Tony Dorsett (freshman) running all over us in Athens.
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Although they were a super team, the thrashing I watched in the Sun Bowl with Nebraska was beyond embarrassing. Now they were really good. Next is the 31-0 to UVA. Wake Forest is right up there and I had to listen to my wife tell me about it for years.
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Yep, same with my wife (Radford grad). She grew up in Virginia and her entire family were huge Cavalier fans. I heard about that one for a while, they were not too bad though. That was a tough loss too…..right up there with’em.
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Perfect.
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Instead of paying the Kent and Arkansas States of the world close to 2 mil (which is absurd), why doesn’t the AD get a bit creative and schedule 2 for 1 match-ups with lower, but far more compelling P5 schools? I’m willing to bet schools like UVA, Purdue, NCST, Maryland, etc. would jump at the chance to schedule a 2 for 1 with us.
Not only will it help create a buzz for them, along with the thousands of UGA fan who will travel and spend money there, but its great for us as its pretty much a gimmie win against an opponent that actually means something. It also will be more appealing as a home game, and will offer a nice travel destination as an away game (fall getaways to places like Raleigh, C’ville, and D.C. would really be enjoyable for any Dawg fan).
I know we’re restricted a bit with our yearly travel to J-ville, I’m not sure why this isn’t being looked at closer by the AD; or if it is, I’ve never heard them mention it.
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I’m listening..name a team that has regularly done this? Or any Power 5 team that has accepted….
And you realize that 2 for 1 like you propose actually loses a home game for UGA…correct?
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Don’t think that a Power 5 will do that anymore. But not a bad idea. But why not a Service Academy. Bring Army or Navy in for 2 and go to West Point or Annapolis for 1. Great road trip, especially to West Point. Great tradition, beautiful place in the Fall and a weekend getaway in NYC. Maybe the NFL could schedule the Falcons there for the weekend too. Beats the hell out of the crap we are playing and very little danger of losing.
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Not a bad idea, but the idea is to get home games. Now, I am for getting those guys to come to Athens straight up. But not a home and home.
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So pay an absurd amount of money to schedule a game with zero fan interest… and compensate losing that absurd amount of money by raising ticket prices and ultimately pushing the cost to those same fans. Seems like a sound business strategy to me….
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It’s a great strategy if you only want to associate w/ your top $$$ donors.
Oh wait ….. That’s exactly what our Ath Dept is doing w/ their invitation only gatherings.
At some point the fans who don’t matter won’t care enough to come.
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Remind me again why the SEC isn’t playing a 9-game schedule?
I’m surprised that UGA and UF aren’t pushing hard for that, given the loss of a home game every other year.
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This just demonstrates what a lousy AD McGarity really is.
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What is your proposal otherwise? How does this differ than what any other major college AD is doing?
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I get the pragmatic stance you’re taking, but to be fair, I think the point is just what you’ve said. All the other AD’s are doing it but why can’t we have a forward thinking, creative, innovative AD that can make a season better without shelling out $2mil? “Destination games” don’t have to be any more than 500 miles away and the bonus of having better home schedules sure is appealing.
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I agree with 92 grad. IMO, McGarity NOT differing from any other major college AD is precisely the problem. In the context of scheduling, yes, it’s a problem when he acts like every SEC West AD…..which is to say, make zero push to change the status quo.
Why is that a problem for McGarity and not others, particularly those in the SEC West ? Well, those in the SEC west have neither (1) a permanent home-and-home with someone from the ACC nor (2) a permanent neutral site game that complicates the quality of the home schedule. Nevermind that we (presumably) rolled right over when the conference needed us to play at Auburn twice…….thereby perma-screwing odd year scheduling when coupled with the aforementioned things unique to UGA and UF.
So what’s my proposal if I’m AD ? I’m teaming up with the Florida AD to drop geographic divisions and move to a 3-5 model. Pushing hard.
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This is exactly why a 10 game conference schedule makes sense. It forces competitive games on the schools and stops a lot of this nonsense. Saban is dead on promoting it. Who wants to pay good money to see Arkansas State, Kent State, or Middle Tennessee when we could have a SEC game instead?
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Best solution is kick SC, aTm, Missouri and Arkansas out and go to a 9 game conference schedule with a round robin format and no championship game. Everybody would play each other every year and there would be no real argument about who the champion was.
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I totally agree except, if we want to, we can STILL have the SECCG between the top 2 teams just for the $$ and fan interest it generates. The winner still likely would be in the CFP even if the regular season champion gets upset by #2.
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Sadly, this is how you win championships.
I would rather play and lose to UGA twice than play a cupcake.
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I’m probably in a big minority here? While not being enthusiastic about seeing a game with one of these FCS schools or a MTSU, etc. I know that many of these schools could not have a football program without the money they receive from these games. They typically make most of their money from this one game.
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So why do we overpay them? So why don’t we just say here’s $500K–if you don’t take it we offer the game to another team. MTSU gets $1.7 Mil–come on!! The Dawgs don’t get that from the City of Jacksonville for the WLOCP.
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The problem with that approach is that we’re paying roughly the “going rate” for these cupcakes. With more P5 teams trying to schedule directional school opponents for one-time home games, they have a lot more leverage and are getting paid $1M+ for D-I schools and $500k+ for D-II schools.
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Then we need to pay the $1.7 to a P-5 school instead. Texas Tech, Cal, Oregon State….these are all teams UGA played in Athens in the past. Send ’em the dough and they will make the trip. I guarantee you Colorado State would jump at the chance! I also like the 2 games in Athens and 1 return game at the OOC stadium idea.
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Well, it does make me that much more thankful that I quit buying season tickets several years ago.
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I can’t wait to root for App State all season, after the opener of course.
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For what it is worth, this is being done nation wide.
My alum school, UW, was one of the last to join the wagon, but when they did they did big time. Portland State and others. I was one who foolishy thought, yeah really foolishly, that the 11th and 12th game would make for some great match ups. My bad for thinking beyond the $$$$$$ and chance for a cheap win. Well not so cheap but a cup cake win. That is why, UGA and UW included, I do not mind when they lose these games. To quote J Geils, serves you right to suffer.
soap box over
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Actually there is some movement away in other parts of the country. The Big Ten has gone to a 9 game conference schedule. They have prohibited their members from playing FCS teams. Still have plenty of cupcakes but at least headed in a better direction.
Alabama is the prestige member of this conference. Saban “talks” a big game, but they should take the lead. Maybe it is just baby steps, but have the Tide play that neutral site game and a home and home. Still leaves 2 cupcakes available. Instead, Bama simply will not play a non conference road game. Would they play Ohio State in Indy? Or USC in Phoenix? Don’t hold your breath.
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The Big Ten just modified its policy about that.
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I have reached the point of acceptance on these non-conference games.
It appears we have stopped insisting on 12 noon September kickoffs, so I will be happy to see our team ditch their hangovers and show up ready to dominate.
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How would you guys feel about scheduling a home and home with a quality opponent, but having that single game’s ticket price doubled to make up for the lost home game to a Kent State or FCS team?
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