Envy and jealousy, Georgia fan edition

From David Hale’s enjoyable piece on Jake Fromm:

It’s been 39 years since Georgia celebrated a national championship, back when Walker was a freshman and Jimmy Carter was president and the Bulldogs’ QB needed to complete just one pass to go down in the history books. In the four decades since, the fan base fumed as Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer dominated at Florida. Cam Newton won a natty for rival Auburn. Heck, even Georgia Tech‘s got one since UGA last celebrated college football supremacy. The Georgia faithful suffered through Ray Goff, lived and died with Mark Richt, watched as David Greene and Matthew Stafford and Aaron Murray came and went without winning it all.

To be a Georgia fan is to smell success like the faint stink of stale beer and cigarettes on your clothes after a long night on Clayton Street. It’s a hazy memory of happier times, supplanted by a pounding headache and nausea.

Only someone who’s been a Georgia beat writer could get us like that.

Advertisement

No matter how you add it up…

The @usatodaysports annual NCAA Division I school-by-school finances database is up and running. See the FY18 revenue and expense for every public school at: https://t.co/sxuEL41DSL pic.twitter.com/Bk2trcUHsR

— Steve Berkowitz (@ByBerkowitz) August 12, 2019

That’s what a growth business looks like, people.  And, checking in with $176,699,893 in revenues, Georgia now ranks sixth in the country.  Say what you will about Butts-Mehre’s methods, it’s certainly raking in the dough.

Speaking of which, I thought it might be worthwhile to revisit the same ground I charted here and here, in reviewing Georgia’s net in comparison with the rest of the conference.  I don’t think the results are going to surprise any of you.

• Texas A&M:  $46,617,008
• Georgia:  $42,758,308
• Mississippi State:  $14,064,473
• Florida:  $12,039,389
• Alabama:  $10,948,924
• LSU:  $7,921,276
• Auburn:  $7,822,378
• Kentucky:  $5,279,032
• South Carolina:  $5,220,593
• Arkansas:  $2,756,388
• Missouri:  $(1,806,941)
• Ole Miss:  $(5,899,651)
• Tennessee:  $(6,485,382)

To put Georgia’s net figure in perspective, the combined net from the SEC’s other thirteen schools is $98,477,487.  Georgia’s net represents 45.19% 30.27% of the conference total ($141,235,795); that’s more extreme a lower percentage than what the EADA numbers showed.  But it remains a sizeable chunk, which is consistent with what the EADA figures indicated.

All of which brings me back to this quote, once again.

McGarity, who played and coached tennis at Georgia and worked in its athletic administration before leaving for Florida, said “there is nothing greater than being part of championships. That’s why we do what we do.

“At the end of the day,” he continued, “all the time you put in at the office, the fun comes when you’re competing for championships and you see what these coaches have done over a number of years to finally get to the top of the mountain and you’re able to be just a small piece of that.”

A reminder from Seth Emerson ($$):

Georgia finished 21st in the Directors’ Cup standings, which ranks schools by how they did in every NCAA sport, from big to small. Last year Georgia finished eighth in the same standings. The previous year it was 13th. The last time Georgia finished this low in the rankings was 1997.

Something isn’t adding up in Athens, and contrary to McGarity’s assertions, it doesn’t appear to be the financial math.

A week of camp in the books

If you haven’t gotten a feel for how things are going in fall camp so far, you’ll find some hints in this Jake Rowe piece, which reflects the observations of him and others.  You won’t be surprised to learn that there’s plenty of talent to go around.  The big issue is integration of that talent at certain positions, most notably wide receiver, where there is bound to be growing pains due to a lack of game experience, particularly at Georgia.

But there is room for optimism, too.  Rowe cites Travon Walker, Nakobe Dean, Kenny McIntosh, DJ Daniel and Tyrique Stevenson as the new kids on the block who have already been showing out.

Nothing so far has led me to think that setting the two deep is going to be less than challenging for the coaches, and that, at certain positions, they’ll be writing in pencil all season.

TFW you give the game away

Shot.

An update to a previous NCAA statement regarding agent certification requirements: pic.twitter.com/enzzVIwZ7L

— Inside the NCAA (@InsidetheNCAA) August 8, 2019

Chaser.

… we have been made aware of several current agents who have appropriately represented former student-athletes in their professional quest and whom the National Basketball Players Association has granted waivers of its bachelor’s degree requirement. While specific individuals were not considered when developing our process, we respect the NBPA’s determination of qualification and have amended our certification criteria.

Student-athletes now can be represented by agents who meet the following requirements:

• Have a bachelor’s degree and/or are currently certified and in good standing with the NBPA.  [Emphasis added.]

Funny how all that concern about the importance of earning a degree dissipated in the face of a withering barrage of criticism… unless you really want to believe the NCAA just discovered the existence of successful agents who didn’t earn one.  Then again, I have to admit choosing between calling the NCAA clueless or greedy is a tough call.

High speed Dawg porn

Took this from the Dawgs247 board…

There’s fast.  Then, there’s freakishly fast.  After that, there’s Jermaine Johnson fast.  Lawd.

Helluva business model you’ve got there.

Further evidence that athletic departments, like nature, abhor a vacuum.

Pay for Power 5 head coaches in 23 NCAA sports other than football & men’s/women’s basketball increased 43% from 2013-18. Football pay was up 51%. You’ve got to spend it on something since players aren’t permitted to be paid. https://t.co/pKdx6u3cLZ

— Jon Solomon (@JonSolomonAspen) August 13, 2019

You’d think the least the schools could do to spread the wealth would be to increase scholarships in non-revenue sports, but to answer somebody’s question from yesterday, that not the reason the NCAA exists.

A simple question

Dear NCAA,

Is it possible for someone to obtain two transfer waivers in the same year?  Asking for a friend.

Sincerely,

SB