Apparently, the word isn’t supposed to mean what I thought it meant any more. Seth Emerson, in ranking Georgia’s most important SEC rivalries, post-expansion era ($$), defines them thusly:
What are the games that are the most important – for reasons of history, location and luster – to be on the annual calendar?
When you put those three factors on equal footing, I suppose that’s how you can get to ranking Oklahoma and Texas, whom Georgia has rarely played, ahead of Kentucky, whom the Dawgs have faced 74 total times, including every year since 1956. Or seeing South Carolina as UGA’s third biggest conference rival. (No question Georgia’s USC’s biggest SEC rivalry, though.)
My point isn’t to take a shot at Seth’s ordering, but it does seem like he’s using the term more broadly than I would. For me, it’s a short list: Florida and Auburn. Everybody else comes after those two.
And you?
Get The Picture 
After the Handbags and the Barn, any of the others are a distant 3rd. That’s why it will be one more step to me doing other things on Saturdays in the fall if the Auburn game ever came off the annual schedule.
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I’ll be royally pissed off if we don’t play Auburn every year. But even if that does happen, we will play them every other year, so it’s not like it’s totally going away. And I’ll have the chip that it was Auburn who didn’t fight for it.
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I’d also be pissed UNC/UVa would be the oldest continuous rivalry in the all of the South, piss on those two.
I know the Senator is a UVa grad but the experience I’ve had with many UVa fans is they were upscale jerks like Gators who had graduated from jorts to Duckheads. It doesn’t help that a guy who went to High School with me was/is a big gator fan with an under graduate degree from Hog Town and went to grad school at UVa.
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It took 2 world wars to keep Georgia and Auburn from playing every year for the past 130 years. All it took now is the admission of 2 schools (really 4) that have no business being in a conference that prides itself on the word “southeastern.”
Every time I think about this, it makes me angry and sad at the same time.
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I agree with you Senator. Florida, Auburn and then I guess South Carolina or Bama. We are (especially now) a lot of teams 2d biggest rival but with the exception of those listed above I could really care less about who rotates against us every year I’m the new 16 team slate.
I disagree with Seth about Texas, TAMU, Oklahoma, etc mainly because they are so far away that it’s not likely that you will encounter a lot of their fans if you live in Georgia. Contrast that with how it is to be a Georgia fan west of Atlanta or in other parts of the state where there are a lot of fans of closer SEC schools.
This is all probably just a placeholder til we bring in Tech, FSU, Clemson and UNC in 5-7 years but we need to play Auburn and Florida every year no matter the size of the conference.
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When the game/sporting event is identified with a slogan, moniker…”WLOCP”, “Clean old fashioned hate”,”Deep south’s oldest rivalry”, these are somewhat recognizable regional games…GO DAWGS! I know there exists games with catch phrases and titles like the Moonshine throwdown, Holy war or Redriver showdown…Battle for the rag just doesn’t make me run over to stubhub for tickets…
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I agree. TN and SC at 3a and 3b. I don’t consider playing a lot and kicking their ass on a consistent basis KY a rivalry.
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I’m gonna be the dork that has to go FU, Auburn Sucks, and then 10RC…I hated the tenn fans back in the 90’s…shit, still do.
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Agreed. Next would be Bama and Tenn, although both of those series are lopsided over the last 15 years. Really it’s more my hatred of those 2 teams.
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Seth and I don’t see eye to eye much anymore about several things. This included.
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Georgia has three rivals: Floriduh, Allbarn, and the NATS. To hell with ‘em!!!
That is it. That is the list. Seth is quite mistaken.
Since the SEC expanded split into divisions in 1992, Georgia added geographic rivalries with Tennessee and Sakerlina that mean far less than the above rivalries. Georgia also lost a rivalry with Clemson when this happened. At this point, it’s really only the Dawgs over 50 who still view Clemson as a rival.
OU and Texas will NEVER be a rivals. Don’t know what they’re smoking over there at The Athletic, but it must be strong.
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I agree. Tech and Clemson would be right after Auburn when you include out of conference.
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Mine would be…
Florida
Auburn
Tennessee
Bama
USCjr
No order for the remaining teams. I do enjoying playing LSU, but don’t think of them as a rival.
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Florida and Clemson for me…AU has faded to me…maybe it’s because we have owned them as of late, and I think they want out of the annual game, sadly. Ole Miss annually is a game I miss.
I know Clemson isn’t in the conference, but we played them annually for a good while, especially when I was in school.
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Owned them as of late? Brother, that’s an understatement. They haven’t won in Athens since 2005 and even that was on a fluke long 4th down play.
Man, it feels so good to have all those wins piled up against them and Tennessee now with the National Championship icing on top.
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It is hard to believe how the worm turned vs AU…
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Florida, Bama, Auburn, and SC. I went to my first Ga/Auburn game in 1965 (a loss), and I was conditioned for decades to consider Barn our second biggest SEC rival. But we have won 14 out of the last 17, and I don’t see the streak ending anytime soon. I think many of our fans have been conditioned by seasons destroyed by Barn over the decades until Richt and then Kirby took over, I rank them third by virtue of the long history, not on recent performance, otherwise they would rank lower. By contrast, the Cocks have won 6 out of the last 17, and many of our wins were by one score. I don’t know if Bama considers us a rival yet, but they will if we win again this year. But they are the team I have my eye on every year.
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SEC only? Florida and Auburn. Add Tech for non-conference (thanks to Dodd’s arrogance and stupidity).
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Florida and Auburn are in a class of themselves. After that I’d have to keep Tech in the loop regardless of how the programs have continued to separate from one another. I’d also throw Clemson into the mix.
I consider the rest of the conference opponents to be “big games” depending on the circumstances, which may be more important than the above rivalries in a given year, but those would be the games that are going to be special regardless of how good we or our opponents are.
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That’s the two.
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That’s it. That’s the two. If the SEC screws up scheduling and we don’t get the Barn every year, that may be a bridge too far for me.
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I saw Richt speak once about rivalries and he made a very good point. He said fan’s biggest rivals depended a lot on where they lived. People in the southern part of the state hated Florida the most, in the west it was Auburn, in the east it was SC, tech still topped the list for many Atlanta area fans and Tennessee was tops for North Georgians. I’d say the three universal rivals are Auburn, Florida and tech with others checking in depending on where someone lives.
Personally, I’m an Auburn, SC, tech hater in that order. To be honest, I hate pretty much every team we play on any sort of regular basis.
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He was right. Tech UF and AU are the main ones, but personal circumstances make a big difference for each fan, as do the current quality of the various opponents. Spurrier at SC… major rival. At peak Fulmer, the Tennessee game was enormous. Hell, over the modern era who has taken over the role of our main supervillain from Florida? None other than Alabama, and we don’t even host them in Athens but once every twelve years.
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Richt was right. Tennessee is a big rivalry up here in the northeast corner of Georgia. It’s irritating to lose to the Vols because there’s so many Vols fans in the area. And if Georgia loses, it’s a long year until we have a chance to win again the next year. Fortunately, for the last five years, we haven’t had to worry about that. I am hoping for at least another decade of wins before some Vols team gets lucky and wins one again. Go Dawgs!
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tech first, tech last, tech always.
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I can’t get totally behind this, but I agree with the sentiment.
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Fech is 2nd for me overall with the Barn rapidly closing the gap.
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Sadly, that is roughly the modern definition of a rivalry.
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Can the TV networks make it “This Week’s Game of The Century”? Well then, yep, it fits the new definition of a “rivalry”…..
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I think we should pull a page from the Joker in the Dark Knight to select our 3rd SEC rival. Remember when he snapped that pool stick in half, gave each piece to a different guy, and told them the winner/survivor could join him? Let’s do that with Tn and SC. Whoever wins this fall gets to be our 3rd rival.
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And Tech is becoming harder to justify as a rival. The last 2 games felt like exhibition games.
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ALL THE BETTER
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IDK. I became a fan in the late 90’s and remember the 3-loss streak and a bunch of close wins under Richt(especially walking out of there after 2009). Back then, they felt like a threat. They just don’t feel like it anymore and with each beat down it feels more and more like UAB or N. Texas. The biggest selling point seems to be getting to see the Dawgs in Atl did those that live immediately West or South of Atlanta
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The GT game has become a no win situation, IMHO. Nobody that’s not a UGA fans gives two shits about UGA/GT.
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For me? Florida is number one with a bullet. Like, they lap the field basically.
Within the league, Auburn is second and, like the distance behind Florida, there’s a pretty significant gap to third.
Third is South Carolina because, like it or not, in the last decade, they’ve played us closer than anybody. Also, Spurrier coached there.
Fourth is Tennessee because I remember the 90’s. Those arrogant asshole deserve everything they’ve been getting. The damn Nebraska of the South just without all the trophies.
The rest is just commentary.
OOC, Tech is the worst. Clemson is bad. The rest don’t matter.
I do have a fair dislike of Ohio State, though.
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I’d swap the order of USCjr and UT, but otherwise agree with everything you said.
Also, FTMF’s!
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My age is telling but I liked the Ole Miss game.
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Ole Miss is a great road game, no doubt, but rivalry? Not so much for me. Not to be too picky, but I think it is fair to take a shot at Seth’s ordering: He set the parameters and then ignored them in favor of what I guess he thinks might become rivalries. I don’t ordinarily think of him as a click bait writer, but hey, I guess it is summer.
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Me too.
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I guess the era of your association with UGA football defines who your biggest rivals are. In my era as a student 1979-1983, it is ditch lizards, east alabama reform school, Cemmons, north ave.trade school, then everybody else.
Now, I consider it ditch lizards, toothless hillbilly inbred bastards, east alabama reform school, and the yard chickens, then everybody else.
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Annual games, Florida and Auburn are the top 2 and things change over time. Auburn was #1 before the Ole Ball Coach arrived in Hog Town. The way the Crocs are trending and Smart’s drive to loose the WLOCP may push Auburn back to #1.
The Nerds are alone in 3rd. Then the Chickens, Hillbillies and Auburn with a lake.
Vandy is a fun annual game. I enjoyed Nashville in the fall and a day trip back seeing some leaves on Sunday if the scheduling worked out. I know many enjoy their trips to Kentucky as well It isn’t just the game for those that travel year after year. It is the leaf trip, seeing the horses run, spending some time in Gatlinbrug, etc
With all that said, Bama is the one I most want to beat currently. That’ll change at some point after Saban.
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As a Georgia fan who has never lived in the state (but adopted my rivalry-sensibilities from my father who grew up in Athens), my rival ranking based purely on disgust would be:
Florida (by a country mile)
Tech
Auburn
Clemson
Tennessee
Alabama
South Carolina
No other teams we regularly play really register on my “disgust” meter.
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There’s no accounting for taste, but fwiw, here’s my recipe for.
“Orange Crush”
One part Flour Dough
One part Tennysux
One part AllBarn
Crush, pulverize, and whip.
Best served cold in the stadium of your choice.
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Almost forgot, the Old Time recipe includes one part Clem’s Sondown!
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I’ve got my spine, I’ve got my orange crush!
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Attaboy, Corch!
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I love that song. One of my favorites. “Green” is often overlooked. It’s the official “R.E.M. sold out for that big label cash,” album for some. I dunno. I like it. Especially where it stands as having an edge, a bit of a harder sound to some songs (like Orange Crush) that wouldn’t be explored again until “Monster.” And it’s the album before they really change up their sound for “Out of Time” and “Automatic for the People.”
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Florida
Auburn
(Tech)
(Clemson)
Bama
Tenn
USCe
Kentucky
LSU
Ole Miss
Miss St
Vandy
Mizzou and TAMU don’t even register and certainly not any other newcomers. Hell…I’d put Notre Dame in above them all now.
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Seth’s list seems to be a list of what games and opposing team’s towns Georgia fans would like to see in 2022-2024 time period rather than what are the most passionate rivalries.
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It’s titled “Georgia’s most important SEC rivalries: Ranking all 15 (future) conference foes” and right before his definition that I cited in the post, he asks, “This all gets us to thinking: What are Georgia’s most important SEC rivalries?”
But, sure, it’s not about rivalries.
Look, I get your point and don’t disagree, but I’m not the one who tossed the word around.
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Senator, didn’t say you were the one tossing words around. I was commenting about Seth’s reasoning in his ordering.
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I have to put the turds at the top with the barn #2. Part of that is because Auburn has become such a non-entity. We all REVEL in the misery that is the current state of Florida football and their feeble efforts at recruiting. We have hardly heard a peep about Auburn or any other adversary. Other than the tradition of hate for the NERDs, they are so pitiful that it is hardly worth the effort to work up a good hate. It’s almost like watching a scrimmage when we play them these days.
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Look,Tex, Misery does love company, and I can stand keeping the Nerds company(in THEIR misery) a game a year. It’s definitely the right thing to do!!!
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Oh, don’t misunderstand me. I still love seeing us grind those arrogant assholes into the ground every year. I just no longer have any real worries before the game other than a potential injury. Auburn is reaching that state. Florida is still just good enough most years to make me sweat a little.
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I hate ’em all equally and want to beat their asses every year. Florida and Auburn are more equal than the others.
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I remember an old UGA t-shirt that had UF, AU, UT and Clemson on it that said all Rednecks turn Orange in the Fall. That sums it up for me.
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I absolutely hate Florida, but I’m a little different in that Auburn tops the list for me personally. I suppose I have many MANY more Auburn friends than Florida friends (most of my Auburn friends are the folks who didn’t get into Georgia) and being in Jerdenhare for that 2010 Cam Newton / Nick Fairley game I vowed to hate the Barn with the fuel of a thousand suns from that point forward.
But Florida is an easy #2 after that of course.
After that… don’t hate me for throwing historical relevance out of the window, but Alabama has become my #3 in the Kirby era. I legitimately hate those cousin-lovers and it’s become quite passionate. All other foes are just so irrelevant right now.
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HB, I know I’ve said it before, but if TN and WV were to play a Bowl game, they’d have to call it the Chromosome Bowl.
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HB, the pink pachyderms are rocketing up my hate scale too…those assholes could end up number 1 with a bullet if they keep flapping their whiny slack jaws…I used to respect Bama…those fucking days are behind me…
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Florida
Tech
Auburn
Clemson
Tennessee
Everyone else.
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Any ranking of Georgia’s conference “rivals” that doesn’t have Vanderbilt last is suspicious from the jump. They may be in the same division, but in my adult lifetime the only time I can recall that UGA fans cared about the Vandy game was when it meant the chance to wipe that smug smile off James Franklin’s face.
Rivalry or no, at least the Mississippi State game allows us to re-assert who the real Bulldogs of the conference are. And the Ole Miss game, wherever it’s played, is worth it for the, uh, “scenery” alone. I don’t consider those johnny-come-lately Big XII refugees “rivals” until they do something to earn the characterization.
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Sometimes, your historical/cultural/geographical type rivals overlap with your dictionary definition type rival (n. person or thing competing with another for the same objective or for superiority in the same field). Not the case for us right now as the former-type rivals are all shitshows, which is nice. According to the latter-type, we have exactly one conference rival and we all know who it is.
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I grew up in Augusta, so the four-inch Cocks are on my list. UF, the Barn, and the four-inchers.
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I know the ‘Turds are our most important rival but, as a fan, I truly enjoy the Auburn rivalry much, much more. Maybe, with the 9 game schedule, its moved back to November where it belongs.
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