How the other half lives

I’ve been wondering about this.

Georgia football coach Kirby Smart wants the Florida-Georgia game moved from its permanent site in Jacksonville to campus sites. His reasoning is clear: recruiting.

Of course, OU-Texas has a permanent neutral site, and one reason the game is anchored in Dallas (and has been since 1929) is clear: recruiting.

I know, I know. It makes no sense. Welcome to the mind of college football coaches.

Nah, you can’t mean…

In the OU-Texas game, the designated home team gets to host recruits at the Cotton Bowl. But in Georgia-Florida, neither team is allowed to bring in recruits, via Southeastern Conference rules.

Seems like rather than move the game, the answer is just change the rule to the Big 12 version.

I guess you can.  Sounds like somebody needs to start pushing Greg Sankey harder.  (Also, it makes you wonder what the SEC is going to do when Oklahoma and Texas join the conference.)

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‘Tis but a flesh wound.

Josh Heupel ain’t worried.

“There has been so much dialogue and communication between our administration and the NCAA, and also just to us and where we’re at,” Heupel said Sunday afternoon during a news conference to preview Monday morning’s start to preseason camp. “Some of the things that hit publicly are some things that we haven’t been able to talk about but we knew was coming. We’ve been very transparent and open with our current roster and our recruits, and it’s why I think we’ve positioned ourselves extremely well.

“You look at the NCAA talking about us being a model of how to move forward for universities when they’re dealing with something, and that’s why from the very beginning I’ve said that it’s a speed bump for this program.”

“Speed bump”?  Ah, that takes me back to the last time a Georgia opponent discussed a speed bump.

“I want what is best for Georgia.”

I can’t figure it out, honestly.  Which of these is the Mr. Conventional Wisdom take for the Cocktail Party?

Smart knows that he has to recruit at the national championship level to keep pace with Alabama and Nick Saban. To Smart’s credit, he has certainly done that. He won the national championship last season and lost in overtime in 2017—to Alabama.

To be fair, I have to admit that if I was Kirby Smart, I would feel exactly the same away.

But I’m not Kirby Smart. I am just an old guy who cares about college football and is seeing tradition—the foundation on which college football is built–starting to fade away.

Or, is both sides-ing it the real Mr. Conventional Wisdom take?

The Rodney Dangerfield of the conference

CFN’s list of the top thirty players in the SEC includes four of the starting quarterbacks in the East (all in the top 20), Brenton Cox, a transfer quarterback at Ole Miss… and no Stetson Bennett.

“Why mess up a good thing?”

Jeez, even Greg McGarity…

“The historical nature of [Florida-Georgia] isn’t important to Kirby,” said former Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity, now CEO of the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl. “But to those who played in it, they always remember that game. With the 50-50 split of fans at the stadium, it’s a great experience.

“Remember, if you change it [move it to a home-and-home series], you’re changing it for good. I don’t think that’s a wise thing to do when the vast majority enjoy the experience. Plus, it’s something unique and unusual.”

Sounds like he had to make that argument regularly, too.

McGarity hired Smart, who brought up moving the event once known as the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party every year to his boss. The request didn’t get far, mainly because Georgia came out $2 million ahead each year from the game payout.

“You’re never going to make anyone happy in the decision, therefore you do what’s best for the institution,” said McGarity. “It was both a financial and historical decision.”

Yeah, well, it was convenient that the money lined up with tradition.  Although, with McGarity, you could argue the reserve fund was a tradition, too.

I know that you know that I know…

Hi, coach.

Oregon's new head coach, Dan Lanning, on opening vs defending national champion Georgia, "They know me, I know them" pic.twitter.com/dmM4mxiTqJ

— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) July 29, 2022

Those that can, coach…

and those that can’t…

Dan Mullen is considering an offer to join ESPN as a studio analyst & is expected to accept, sources told @ActionNetworkHQ. The former Florida & Mississippi State coach has been a guest analyst for ESPN in the past

— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) July 31, 2022