While sitting in the Houston airport yesterday on my way back home, I get this Twitter notification that Stewart Mandel has again acknowledged the existence of the Montana Project.
Here’s the entirety of the Mailbag entry on the subject (h/t Justin):
Hey Stewart,What an incredible Rose Bowl win by Georgia! That victory, plus your article about the Dawgs’ upward trajectory under Kirby Smart has me wondering: how close is Georgia to moving from Baron to King?Scott Sandy, Cobleskill, N.Y.Do you think the denizens of Montana would recognize a Georgia football helmet today?Justin MichelsHa.A little background for our subscribers: Ten years ago I wrote a column separating the nation’s power-conference programs into four tiers — Kings, Barons, Knights and Peasants — based solely on prestige. No fan base was more up in arms than Georgia’s over the fact I didn’t have it in the highest tier. I did not believe then — or in 2012 and 2017 when I updated the list — that Georgia’s program was perceived as a national power.One blog in particular really latched on to my contention that if you showed a Georgia “G” helmet to 100 random fans in Montana they would not be able to identify it as easily as Michigan’s or Alabama’s. They even sent a fan with a video camera out to bars in the state to try to disprove me. It didn’t work, but I admired the effort.But nothing changes a program’s perception more than winning a national championship. Last year I elevated Clemson to King. And so, let me just go on the record right now — if the Dawgs beat Alabama on Monday, I will officially consider them kings. Please pass this news along to Senator Blutarsky in the (very likely) event he’s not a subscriber here.
If Georgia wins the natty, I guess I’ll have to subscribe.
Get The Picture 
It’s worth it. Lots of good writers. For us old folks who still like to actually to read
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Seconded…good stuff.
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Agreed.
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Not such an old guy myself, but I subscribe as well. I think they’ve got a real good writer line-up on both CFB and baseball coverage.
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I agree wholeheartedly. It’s a cheap subscription, as these things go, and they produce outstanding content.
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You could also call it the LA project. Had a few folks downtown ask me if I was a green bay fan or what am I in town for.
The topper was the uber driver who was clueless about the rose bowl game and the participants. After that exchange, he proceeded to tell me he was going soon to visit his brother in GA for the second time who “is a professor at the university in athens”.
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We had an event here in my home town a few years ago that drew people from all over the US. My son (~6 at the time) was wearing a shirt with the G logo and some old man stopped him and asked if he was a packers fan. My son looked at him and said, “Who are the Packers, you are in GA this is a Bulldawg shirt.”
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Remind me who Mandel is again? Did he discover genetics or something like that?
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Mandel is one of those guys who somehow got a sportswriter job but doesn’t know what he is talking about. I am continually amazed at the incompetence displayed by the so-called sports journalists in this country especially the football writers. Mandel not only is a know-nothing but he also has an overinflated view of his own worth, a trait he shares with a lot of his compatriots.
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Close. He’s one letter and about 60 IQ points off.
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Me thinks SM thinks too much of what we think of his irrelevant opinion.
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That and he rarely gets his facts right. He makes things up like he did in the Twitter message above. The Montana Project proved Mandel was wrong–most of the people in Montana who were asked recognized the UGA logo on the helmet. But even ten years later Mandel won’t admit he was wrong. What an asshole.
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Exactly. What does he mean “it didn’t work”? The Montana Project completely disproved Mandel’s hypothesis.
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He meant that the attempt to change his mind didn’t work…..I think
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So the criteria have changed now, eh? Now it’s not about people in Montana – only those with a recent NC?
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The rental car agent at the San Diego airport was certainly familiar with the Dawgs. He couldn’t stop talking about how much money he had bet on Georgia, and upgraded us to a bigger car, hopefully due to the Georgia gear we were wearing.
We’re bad, we’re nationwide.
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MK, Georgia has been nationwide for a loooong time, dopes like Mandel notwithstanding.
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If we beat Bama for all the marbles, we’re bypassing kings and going straight to gods.
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Perhaps Mandel should consider subscribing to GTP. He might learn something about cfb.
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^This.
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That’s what I get for sleeping late: I wanted to post this.
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You have the best college football blog on the internet.
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Win or lose I think the exposure from this season would yield better than the C grade that the Montana Project got on the first go round. I think we’d at least hit a B+
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Meh…doubt I subscribe. Probably a GTPer for life. Just the right fix for my CF habit. Music is cool, blog well written and fun and since the CMR days the real GTPer posters here out number the trolls.
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Missing trolls? I’ll help…
FIRE KIRBY!!!11!!! He’s got ’em resting instead of hitting this week! Getting soft! And he’s stealing money from the University for not being undefeated! We paid for that! And he’s nice to the press now, not mean! And he’s only got a 10 win average per year!
I won’t even throw in “He’s winning with Richt’s players.” That will just get too much s**t started.
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^this
And I say we fine him if he loses focus on the importance of championships and there are any articles in the Rolling Stone about Smart’s devout Christianity and there will be NO adoption of kids from any Ukrainian orphanages.
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AusDawg85-
You did not mention that Kirby is now a great game manager. Fire Kirby
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Eh, who cares. I get my college football fix from non-traditional media.
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