Kirby Smart agrees with Gus Malzahn when it comes to rotating rivalry games late in the season.
The Georgia coach backed the idea Malzahn suggested earlier this month, that the host or visitor of the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry should not also host or be the road team in the same season for the Iron Bowl in Auburn’s case, or the Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate game in Georgia’s case.
“Yeah, absolutely. If we get a chance to fix that and return the favor that we paid to them,” Smart said. “I hear about that a lot – obviously I wasn’t there – but about the two times there to travel back-to-back. I think if you can make it more consistent, it will balance things out, probably be helpful in the long run, but I got a feeling there’s more to than just us and them. It always affects so many other moving parts, but it would be nice to do that.”
Maybe it’s not as tough-sounding as you’d like, but it’s better than anything McGarity has put forth. (Which is to say, nothing.)
Get The Picture 
It LITERALLY only affects us and the barn. It ain’t that complicated…
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Actually, it affected everyone in the league, which is why we had to change. Not sure how many times the Senator is going to keep beating this dead horse – the only way to change it is to go to 9 conference games…
And before you respond, please take a look at the schedules for all cross-divisional games this year and see which division is home for all the permanent rivalries (East) and which is home for all the rotating rivalries (West). We were “off-schedule” and when the conference expanded and went to only 2 cross-divisional games instead of 3, the flexibility which allowed us to be “off-schedule” evaporated…
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LMAO.
2 head coaches are calling for a change, but I’m beating a dead horse.
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Sure Jan…
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Yes, it is a dead horse, because it AIN’T HAPPENING until they go to a 9-game conference schedule (which there is only one coach calling for at the moment). It’s nothing but a throw away talking point, which is never followed by any analysis or workable solution…
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Not a dead horse at all, it is better for the only two teams impacted. It was wrong when we did it, how can it be wrong now? McDoofus would never have made an attempt, good on Kirby.
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It had to be done to make the 6-1-1 format work.
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I could see us agreeing to fix this by going to Auburn back-to-back again.
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I almost posted that as GM’s solution.
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It’s the Georgia Way, thankfully we are getting away from that.
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Yeah, I was glad to hear Kirby make that the main point. I am fairly certain Kirby isn’t going to Auburn two years in a row.
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My only question is – why has this taken so long to be paid back?
2018 – Rednecks from SE AL come to Athens
2109-rednecks from SE AL come to Athens
2020- we go to the shit hole village on the plains
Problem solved
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This seems like a simple way to fix our issue with the professional cheaters on the plains. What it does to the rest of their schedule is of no concern to me.
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that we havent fixed this is crazy. The only 2 schools impacted are both adversely impacted.
But UGA could also fix it with a switch in the tech series. Play one of those tech games at Mercedes Benz and it fixes it as well.
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Only if it is the tech home game in the series. We don’t need to be giving up any more games in Sanford.
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They owe us a game, so I wouldn’t fix it other than them going back to back with us.
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This isn’t easily solved. With the SEC’s 6-1-1 format, every permanent opponent must be played at home in one division each year. That is the only way to make the math work for repeating, consistent SEC schedules.
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If they flip the Iron Bowl, Bama gets LSU, Tenn., and Auburn all at home or away.
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I’m surprised Kirby is siding with Gus on this. The only reason he is bitching about it is because he know he’s reached the point he’s never beating Georgia again much less Bama and needed something to whine about.
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I’m not sure I follow how a game between us and au on (pick a date 2 years in a row has anything to do with the rest of the conference. could someone smarter than me shed some light
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damn! I should proofread before I hit enter……smh
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It’s very simple.
When we were on the 5-1-2 format with 12 teams, we played Auburn at home while the rest of the East played their permanent opponents in the West stadiums and vice versa.
When the SEC went to a 6-1-1 format, we were an aberration because we we hosted Auburn in different years than when the East hosted their West opponents.
The SEC wanted a 4-4 schedule where every team had 4 home games and 4 away games (and yes, even with the Cocktail Party, we have designated home and away teams, so that works with 4-4). At the same time, the SEC wanted to be able to create permanent schedules which worked on a predictable rotating basis unlike the ad hoc schedules they came up with the first two years of the 14 team SEC.
In order to have a consistent, repeating schedule, a 6-1-1 format, and every team having 4 home and 4 away games each season, something had to give. Either EVERY OTHER permanent East/West series had to double up, or the UGA/Auburn series had to get on the same yearly rotating schedule as the rest of the permanent series. Since the SEC went to a 6-1-1 format partially because of UGA’s demands (the Tech series made us less prone to want to go to a 9 game schedule AND we were one of 6 schools which pushed hard to retain the permanent East/West series), it only made sense that we would have to give something up – back-to-back games at Auburn.
If we were to get a return back-to-back from Auburn, it would require a drastic scheduling change from the rest of the SEC to make it work – switching to 9 games, forcing every other East/West permanent rivalry to switch too, expansion or contraction, some new scheduling arrangement like pods, etc. It’s not going to happen.
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Thanks for the clarification I was unaware they wanted the 4-4 and everything to be on par with the rest of the conference, I thought we had a problem with the stadium and needed to play that game on the road instead of having it at home.
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