Taking one for the team

This is so Georgia Way.

… McGarity said Georgia and Auburn simply made a sacrifice in 2012 for the good of the league, and it’s not one they can just take back.

“When Missouri and Texas A&M joined the conference, three schools had to move some traditional dates in order to make the schedules work,” McGarity told reporters. “Auburn and Georgia were two of those schools. It was to make the 6-1-1 work. If we hadn’t done that, a bunch of other schools, many more than three would have had to make all kinds of changes. To undo it now, again, you’d need a much larger [group] of teams make changes, many more than three.

“So it’s one of those things where it might not have been the best for Georgia, but it was best for the conference.”

It was too much like work for the conference, so McGarity just said, “screw it, we’ll take the hit”.  If there were no quid pro quo for that, it was a stupidly noble gesture.  (The only thing more depressing would be if it turned out there was a quid pro quo that nobody can talk about years later.)

The topper is ignoring your successful head coach’s wishes now because it’s still too much trouble for the league office to fix a mess of its own making.

A man who’s willing to go out and fight for his football program like that deserves all the contract extension he can get, amirite?

***************************************************************************

UPDATE:  If you don’t subscribe to The Athletic, it’s a shame you can’t read Seth Emerson’s piece today on this subject.  It’s a pay site, so I’m not going to excerpt from it, except to note that Seth asked Mark Womack, the man responsible for football scheduling for the SEC, if there was indeed a quid pro quo for Georgia’s sacrifice.  Seth’s pithy summary of Womack’s response:  “So, essentially, Georgia’s reward was the thanks of a grateful conference.”

Consider the cockles of my heart warmed.