Georgia-Auburn game could be sacrificed in SEC scheduling
The Georgia-Auburn rivalry includes this battle: Uga vs. Robert Baker. (Montgomery Advertiser)
There is a chance that SEC conference expansion will claim one significant victim: The Georgia-Auburn series.
Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity said Wednesday that SEC athletic directors will meet near the end of the month to discuss future football scheduling. With the conference’s addition of Texas A&M and Missouri, the two biggest questions: 1) Will the SEC go to a nine-game conference schedule? 2) Will expansion force for the end of the SEC’s annual East-West rivalry games of Georgia-Auburn and Alabama-Tennessee?
Answer to No. 1: Probably not.
Answer to No. 2: Possibly.
Georgia-Auburn is known as the “Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry,” dating back to 1892. They have played every year since 1898, with three exceptions: 1917, 1918 and 1943. The reasons: World War I and World War II. It appears “Conference Armageddon” may have an equal impact.
The ACC recently announced that teams will begin playing nine-game conference schedules when Pittsburgh and Syracuse officially join the league. McGarity is against the SEC increasing from eight-game schedules and does not sense there’s any movement in that direction. He said nine conference games might necessitate schools dropping a traditional local rivalry. Examples: Georgia-Georgia Tech, Florida-Florida State and South-Carolina-Clemson.
The future of Georgia-Auburn is less certain. Expansion will lead to schools playing six games against division opponents and two against the opposite division. (The current breakdown is five-three.) But there are only two traditional East-West rivalries in the SEC, which could lead to schools rotating opponents from the opposite division.
“I think if you ask Alabama and Tennessee, like us and Auburn, we’d like to retain the games,” McGarity said. “But does that work? What do the other 10 schools think? Those four schools like having those games but there’s no other East-West match-up that has that piece of history to it. So I don’t where that fits in.”
He said athletic directors will study “numerous models” when they meet.
“With 14 teams, not everybody will be happy,” he said. “Some will have a problem with everything. But we’ll make decisions based on the best situation of the league.”
By Jeff Schultz
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
522 comments Add your comment
Annoyed by SEC Posturing
February 8th, 2012
7:05 pm
Call it what it is. SEC would rather drop 100+ year old rivalries so that they can keep an extra cupcake on the schedule.
LakeDawg
February 8th, 2012
7:05 pm
Beast from the East,
You’re right of course. Its just reached a tipping point for me. And yes, I’m a sucker.
Boise Dawg
February 8th, 2012
7:06 pm
The SEC should already be playing 9 conference games. Other conferences do and to me that is the small price of expansion. In fact, what is the point of conference expansion if you aren’t going to play a nice sample size of teams from your conference? Playing 8 conference games in a 14 team conference means you play 62% of the teams in your conference each year. Pathetic!
LakeDawg
February 8th, 2012
7:11 pm
“In fact, what is the point of conference expansion if you aren’t going to play a nice sample size of teams from your conference? ”
The point is increased revenue. Period. Nothing more.
Beast from the East
February 8th, 2012
7:13 pm
I think you’ll see the conference expand to 16 teams within the next 5 years and possibly a 10 game conference schedule to go along with it.
5150 UOAD
February 8th, 2012
7:15 pm
Play 9 Conference games keep the UGa v GT and punt the Ga Southerns to the curb. Looks like the Big Bad SEC is scared of itself now and have to keep the lil babies on the schedule.
WHY didn’t they move Auburn to the EAST in the first place?
Fans are FORCED to pay a ton of money for home games against Ga Southern, Ga State, & Troys of the world. No thanks Play 9 Conference games and punt the Pi$$y to the curb. Stop Robbing the fans for a JOKE win.
Ghost
February 8th, 2012
7:17 pm
5150, I am not going to go through the lists over since 2008. Go to rivals or scout the info is there. But I will give you some names. B. boykin, t. King, j Owens, B rambo, C robinson, d tyson,m gilliard, D lee,B smith, K houston, alec ogletree, , garrison smith, tj stripling, Mike Thorton, S. bailey, Chris conley, watts dantzler, z de bell, ray drew, A. herrera, Nick marshall (just got kicked off the team) Js wesley, X ward, Jordan jenkins,john atkins, ja, deloach, quayvon hicks, Keith marshall, J. taylor.
GTBob
February 8th, 2012
7:25 pm
GTBob is a sad case. He came out today and admitted on another blog that he has no friends and that he likes men.
Hmm. This is a little fishy. You typed word for word the same thing that a UGA fan said on another board. Care to tell us the name you normally post as?
Beast from the East
February 8th, 2012
7:25 pm
5150,
They will never stop “robbing the fans” when the fans continue to fill the seats. It’s all about the money.
Serious???
February 8th, 2012
7:26 pm
dump UGA-Auburn because texas a&M or missouri are in the SEC??? are you serious??? mcgarity needs to lay off the drugs if he’s thinking of that.
Will Smith
February 8th, 2012
7:27 pm
This has got to be the lamest idea in the history of the conference. Just move us (Auburn) to the East, which any dummy who made a “C” in geography can figure out is a natural fit. We can still play the Tuscalosers every year. Once a conference reaches a certain size, it makes no sense to insist on playing “x” games against teams in the other conference anyway. The SEC title game becomes more like a World Series (before the god-awful inter-league play started), even more exciting. Basketball and baseball have more games so rivalries could build up across divisions.
A conference without traditions is just moneyball, I don’t want to watch that at all!
Contractor
February 8th, 2012
7:28 pm
Beast from the east,
Florida has been rather good, but if you knew anything about Georgia, you’d know our teams don’t play to their potential, but keep games close and never stretch their legs. There is no pride poin beating Florida International and playing The Citadel 7 games in. We all outta be ashamed for scheduling more than two Division II teams outside of the first two games. Georgia played a soft schedule and we got worked in the SEC Championship game because we hadn’t played that level of competition and wasn’t sure how to respond. The Florida mentality has been well documented and allows Florida’s teams to gain full strength throughout the year by beating up on cupcakes. Argue all you want, but your schedules have been pathetic under McGarity, and Georgia’s is showing now and in future seasons. Boise State is a test we outta have to face every year early, not try and back our way into a BCS bowl.
phil
February 8th, 2012
7:29 pm
Dump Tech.
Keep Fraudburn. At least it’s a real opponent.
Coach
February 8th, 2012
7:30 pm
Actually, your opening is wrong. Bama-UGA is already a victim, and the Auburn series is next? Just because you won’t play 9 conference games? Boy, this expansion is really great. Who cares about A&M, Mizzou, Syracuse or UConn.
Delbert D.
February 8th, 2012
7:30 pm
If the SEC plays only 2 opposite division schools every year, they may as well split into 2 separate conferences. I guess I was wrong in assuming the 6-2 schedule was temporary, to accommodate the 2 new schools’ immediate scheduling conflicts.
Contractor
February 8th, 2012
7:30 pm
LSU and Alabama have shown that beating quality opponents like Oregon and Penn State prove to be more beneficial than Buffalo and The Citadel.
phil
February 8th, 2012
7:32 pm
Fire CMR!
Beast from the East
February 8th, 2012
7:40 pm
Contractor,
LSU and Bama don’t have to play each other at a nuetral site every year, thus losing a home game every other year. They also do not have to play an in-state rival from OOC every year, thus losing another home game every other year. That is why they play those patsies. You can’t get a quality opponent to come to your place without a return trip. That is why both UF and UGA play so many cupcakes.
adamwareagle
February 8th, 2012
7:45 pm
this is how delusional acc fans are acc teams play creampuff non conference games too plus that crappy conference schedule. and what moron defended va tech who have they beat in the last 4 years that meant anything they got drug by clemson twice last year lost boise and lets not forget about being beat by james madison sure ole miss lost to a div 2a team or whatever they call it know but not the bigdogs of the sec you acc fans are morons trying to talk about sec football. you know why sec guys dont talk bad about acc basketball because we know yall are ahead of us in basketball because we are not stupid.
Ghost
February 8th, 2012
7:46 pm
Beast you are correct and many people don’t understand it about $ tough to take away 93,000 paid attendance.Take a look at Bama and LSu schedule for 2012 not very intimidating either.
Falcon Man..
February 8th, 2012
7:50 pm
AU UGA is one of the better rivalry games played EVER…We have played AU for over 100 years and AU has a 1 game advantage. That is about as good of a rivalry as there is, this would be HORRIBLE losing that game. So we would rotate a Miss State or a Arkansas in place of AU in some years? College FB has JUMPED the SHARK..
Beast from the East
February 8th, 2012
7:50 pm
Ghost,
Something will have to give as the conference expands and the conference schedule moves to 9 or 10 games. Either UF/UGA will have to go to home and home or the UF/FSU and UGA/GT games will end. Who knows, maybe both will happen over time.
Falcon Man..
February 8th, 2012
7:52 pm
Move AU to the East and Missou to the West..UT/Bama hasn’t been relevant in 15 years…AU to the east makes too much sense
bamaonline
February 8th, 2012
7:52 pm
Ga has the easiest schedule in the nation and now they are trying to get out of a game stay lose more than half the time. Why not play Vandy twice every year and call yourself champs.
AU in Vestavia
February 8th, 2012
7:56 pm
AU really tried to move to the East this past season, UGA,bammer,UF did not want it..
Jakeau24
February 8th, 2012
8:14 pm
Athens is my second favorite place to tailgate and play other than Auburn. Not playing THUGA would suck. Auburn should be in the East anyway….
5150 UOAD
February 8th, 2012
8:15 pm
Looks a little like the SEC brain trust didn’t do as much Thinking about this expansion thing as we were lead to believe.
Ghost
February 8th, 2012
8:18 pm
Bamaonline, Things are cyclical and do shift the east could be much better next year the west could decline a little who knows that why they play the games. But please don’t be so condescending like Bama plays a a tough game every week W. Ky, Fl. Atlantic,W. Carolina, 1 tough out of conference game. Tenn and Mizzou from the east.No Georgia, Florida or South Carolina and all 3 will be good next year.
Floyd
February 8th, 2012
8:41 pm
Georgia is 31-11 against Georgia Tech dating back to 1970. Why drop the Trade School and pickup a non-BCS opponent when we already have the perfect cupcake?
pttc
February 8th, 2012
8:48 pm
Would have been sad to see it go before Auburn sold their soul to the devil to rent Cam Newton for a year and plucked that thug Fairly out of Juco. He and Suh took much of the “feel-good” out of the Lion’s turnaround season. Auburn can wallow in the slime with Nick Satan and the other toothless redneck nutjobs over in Alabama. Face it, their is nothing else in the whole state for them to be proud of, so I guess let them have their football but otherwise the fewer times those hicks head east the better.
IL Jacket
February 8th, 2012
9:00 pm
If this were to come to fruition it would be a sad day for both UGA and Auburn. College football is in large measure about tradition and the ” Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry” should be sacrosanct. Otherwise, it becomes like NFL where teams change leagues for financial reasons.
It hasn’t come to the point of dropping Auburn yet, but, in my mind, it is just another example of the fan being ignored and having an inferior product foisted upon the long suffering season ticket holder. Remember the rationale for the 12th game was so there could be more intersectional OOC games. And yes, I fault my own team for its “strategic” scheduling. I mean who wants to watch MTSU, Coastal Carolina, Samford, even Ga. Southern for that matter. I harken back to the days when Tech played USC Trojans, ND, UT. That is the way to get better-play better opponents.
IL Jacket
February 8th, 2012
9:05 pm
Moving AU to the East wouldn’t solve the math problem of not having a traditional cross sectional rival on your schedule ever year. Then, if AU moved East, it would mean it would not play Bama every year and I don’t think they are going to settle for that.
Matt the Brave
February 8th, 2012
9:09 pm
Could we drop Kentucky or Vanderbilt? Of course, this may be a moot point if Auburn and Alabama move over to the SEC East after next year. I doubt that will happen, though..can you imagine UF, UT, UGA, Bama, AU all in the same SIDE of the conference?
Dawg48
February 8th, 2012
9:12 pm
How are you going to tear down the foundation of what your conference is built on?
5150 UOAD
February 8th, 2012
9:16 pm
48 because what they are Building On now has NOTHING to do with Students or Institutions of Higher Learning, but MONEY.
Dawg48
February 8th, 2012
9:19 pm
These games have been a part of all our lives since we where born! This tick’s me OFF!
Dawg48
February 8th, 2012
9:24 pm
It’s not just UGA Auburn, it’s Alabama Tennessee, Fla LSU as well, if they end these games it would be no problem to end the Fla GA game or Bama AU or any of the traditional games. History may repeat it’s self if these conferences get to big. The Old southern conference broke up when it got to big and formed the SEC. If they take away the traditional games and the conference gets to big what’s to say some of the founding teams jump ship and start another conference down the road.
JB
February 8th, 2012
9:30 pm
We ought to drop Tech and pick up another SEC foe. What’s left to prove?
5150 UOAD
February 8th, 2012
9:31 pm
48…Texas v Texas A&M, Pittsburgh v WVU, Kansas v Mizzou and many other game are looking to disappear so Conferences will keep the pansy teams instead of good tough games.
Dawg48
February 8th, 2012
9:33 pm
5150, I know and it’s sad.
5150 UOAD
February 8th, 2012
9:33 pm
JB that will draw the same fire that USC V Clemson is drawing. The State Politicians will start to make laws to keep these games.
If you had guts would would say drop Ga Southern but we know you don’t have the guts to play a hard schedule. McGarity has no balls.
JB
February 8th, 2012
9:35 pm
5150. Compare where we’ve been and who we’ve played the last 4-5 years….say vs the mighty Gators. Do it.
Dawg48
February 8th, 2012
9:38 pm
The old southern conference…..
The conference was formed on February 25, 1921 in Atlanta as fourteen member institutions split from the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association.[1] Southern Conference charter members were Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi State, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Tennessee, Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Washington & Lee. In 1922, six more universities – Florida, LSU, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tulane, and Vanderbilt joined the conference. Later additions included Sewanee (1923), Virginia Military Institute (1924), and Duke (1929).
The SoCon is particularly notable for having spawned two other major conferences. In 1933, thirteen schools located south and west of the Appalachians (Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State, University of the South, Tennessee, Tulane, and Vanderbilt) departed the SoCon to form the Southeastern Conference (SEC).[1] In 1953, seven schools (Clemson, Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina, and Wake Forest) withdrew from the SoCon to form the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).[1]
JB
February 8th, 2012
9:38 pm
Arizona …There……………Olklahoma St…..There……………..Boise St, ranked #5 pre season…in the dome………………………………..Non of the these look like Charleston Southern driving over in a church bus to play.
5150 UOAD
February 8th, 2012
9:44 pm
Okie St was an easy WIN when UGa made the contract. Arizona hasn’t been that good in years. UGa dropped the H-n-H with Oregon so that is why the Boise St game happened.
JB
February 8th, 2012
9:46 pm
5150……….spin it all you want. The Mighty Gators have never been on a plane.And Tech’s first 6 wins last year were embarrassing.
Steve
February 8th, 2012
9:53 pm
5150 UOAD what’s it like to have no life? I just did a quick look at this blog and you have been on all afternoon and night. AND YOU ARE NOT EVEN A GEORGIA FAN! Talk about pathetic. You and GTBob need to get together and have a milk or something.
5150 UOAD
February 8th, 2012
10:06 pm
JB are these the teams you call a step up from the lil sisters of the blind?
2005 Boise St 13 v UGA 48…………BSU was 9-4
2006 Colorado 13 V UGA 14……….CU was 2-10
2007 Okie St 14 v UGA 35…………..OSU was 7-6
2008 Arizona St 10 v UGA 27………ASU was 5-7
2009 Okie St 24 v UGA 10…………..OSU was 9-4
2009 Arizona St 17 v UGA 20………ASU was 4-8
2010 Colorado 29 v UGA 27………..CU was 5-7
2011 Boise St 35 v UGA 21…………BSU was 12-1
Tell me about how TUFF these teams were again Boise St was good both times and Okie St was good one year, but the rest were crapy.
Brainiac(Dawg For Life) / (CMR fan for life)
February 8th, 2012
10:07 pm
@ FJR:
Been keeping up with D-1 Football long???
I didn’t think so. The first thing McGarity did when UGA hired him was cancel a scheduled game with a pushover and scheduled Boise State but don’t let the facts get in the way of your single digit IQ creations.
Nick
February 8th, 2012
10:07 pm
It’s necessary for the SEC to move to a 9-game schedule in the future. 6 divsional, 3 inter-league games. Sure, you drop a non-conference game, but that will mean that Georgia probably won’t be killed by teams like Boise State in the future. Also, NO MORE TEAMS PLEASE!!! Mizzou and Texas A&M were unecessary in my opinion, but two more teams is ridiculous. 14 teams with a 9 game schedule and a protected inter-league rivalry will work. Don’t fix what’s not broken.