Dumping Georgia-Auburn rivalry would be bad for college football
As I’m sure you’ve seen, UGA athletic director Greg McGarity talked with reporters Wednesday about the possibility of the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry between Georgia and Auburn falling victim to the revised schedule the expanded SEC is likely to undertake after this coming season.
Basically, what it comes down to is this: The permanent cross-divisional rivalries could easily be maintained if the SEC went to a nine-game conference schedule as other conferences, including the ACC, are doing. But SEC athletic directors prefer to stick with eight conference games in order to maintain more scheduling flexibility (meaning they can schedule the occasional nonconference BCS game and still feast on at least two cupcakes per season).
That’s an even bigger factor for teams like Georgia, Florida and South Carolina that have BCS in-state rivals permanently locked in on their schedule.
The future of the Georgia-Auburn rivalry is endangered because, with that game and Alabama-Tennessee being the only east-west permanent rivalries that historically mean a whole lot to the schools involved, there’s little incentive for the athletic directors of the remaining 10 SEC schools to maintain them.
This is one instance in which what the fans clearly would prefer runs completely counter to what the business-minded athletic directors desire. There’s no question fans would rather give up a cupcake game than a traditional yearly rivalry.
But the fans and athletic directors are on separate pages here.
McGarity admitted as much when he told the Macon Telegraph that he opposed going to nine conference games because, in UGA’s case, with Georgia Tech “that makes 10 games. If you ever wanted to schedule Clemson or Ohio State, like we have, then that only leaves one guarantee game. That’s a pretty tough schedule. Fans would love it. But I don’t know if your coaches or players [would]. That’s strapping it up 11 of 12 weeks there. You have to have some time where some players play who never get a chance to be on the field. That’s why you schedule some of the I-AAs, and some of the other games, to let some of those kids grow, let those kids get their experience.”
OK, first of all, most of us know that those cupcake games really are primarily scheduled for financial reasons, not to give the kids riding the bench a chance at playing time.
But even if you accept the athletic directors’ argument for not going to nine conference games, asking fans at Georgia, Auburn, Alabama and Tennessee to accept the loss of a traditional rivalry game with a storied history in exchange for a glorified scrimmage against a 1-AA team or some nobody school with a directional name is simply not in the best interests of college football.
That may be old-fashioned thinking, I know, but if the SEC starts throwing away those longstanding traditions that have engendered the fanatical fan support that has provided the foundation of its success, what you end up with is just a feeder league for the NFL.
Got something on your mind concerning UGA athletics or a question for the Junkyard Blawg? Send it to junkyardblawg@gmail.com.
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300 comments Add your comment
Peter Rajecki was a heck of a kicker
February 9th, 2012
8:35 pm
The SEC showed their colors, disappointing to this long time Dog season ticket holder, when they went after two teams hundreds of miles away from our previous western most teams, because of television revenue. Growing the conference is fine, but dollars were seemingly the only consideration. I won’t go into the list of possibilities here, but any number of them would have been better choices than Mizzou or T A&M, with no disrespect to those school intended.
The geographical argument concerning Mizzou going to the East, making us look as poorly run as
the Big East (San Diego State, really?) really sickens me, but losing Au/Ga and Tn/Al is really a slap in the face to those who have paid the bills for all of the years until ESPN came long….the fans.
9 conference games, Tech and two cupcakes is plenty. Some years we could drop a cupcake and play a decent team, but why not play those teams in a bowl instead?
Money ruined pro sports, and college sports are on the precipice.
AceDawg
February 9th, 2012
9:06 pm
The refined truth: THIS SUCKS. It sucks to lose playing Auburn, but it also sucks to only play one additional SEC West team per year. I’d rather some sort of 3 division 4 team setup come about where somehow the SEC determines two teams for the championship or makes a 4 team playoff. Yes, that seems absurd, but I hate the first two scenarios so much, as well as a 9 game schedule, that I’d actually prefer the absurdity of 3 divisions.
bamaboy
February 9th, 2012
9:52 pm
What else can Ga. do to make there weak schedule weaker? I don’t know but they will think of something.
Seriously
February 9th, 2012
9:56 pm
The draw of the SEC is history, tradition, and the rivalries. If we do away with UGA/Auburn, we (the SEC) are giving up what made us great and desirable in the interest of just getting bigger… doesn’t make much sense to me. Seems like we should stick with what has worked for all these years (traditional rivalries) and incorporate the new schools rather than change what got us here in the first place.
BabsTolstoy
February 9th, 2012
10:50 pm
As an Auburn man I’m heartened to see the leg humpers support of this rivalry. My mom’s a leg humper too and we have a bet every year. She has owned me lately of course but it is great fun being one of the richest games in the sport. Only idiots would throw that away. It took too long to earn. Even the mullets in Tuscaloosa love to hate the Vols. I undertand that. It’s a part of the DNA. Pray something like this doesn’t happen. My mom and I would be sad. But it would save me a dollar every year.
gtkenz
February 9th, 2012
11:30 pm
Bad for College Football, but apparently good for UGAg. With a little luck the puppies will miss the entire West every season. And who said the Irish had all the luck? Oops, there’s still that game in ATL every year……..ouch!!
LEGAL EAGLE
February 9th, 2012
11:39 pm
COMMON SENSE has the right idea. Move BAMA and AUBURN to the EAST and put TEXAS A & M with MISSOURI in the WEST. Old rivalries remain and new rivalries wil be born. FLORIDA-AUBURN every year is like the good ol’days. ARKANSAS-MISSOURI will heat up and there is MISSOURI-LSU every year becoming a new rivalry. Forget the $$$$ and make it fun for the fans—-or the FANS find something else to do with their money.
War Dang Dawg
February 10th, 2012
1:09 am
“My mom’s a leg humper too…”
You know, you could go the entire rest of your life and not expect to read or hear that statement again. Well done, Babs.
Peach Fuzz
February 10th, 2012
5:23 am
Why not schedule 14 games, then do away with bowl games and the
bogus MNC.
Peach Fuzz
February 10th, 2012
5:31 am
Watching college FB implode right before our very eyes.
BabsTolstoy
February 10th, 2012
7:10 am
Hey, I love my mom but it is what it is. Once a leg humper…
G-Dawg
February 10th, 2012
7:18 am
Momma’s a leg humper…thats hilarious!! Happy Friday everyone!!!!
jambak
February 10th, 2012
7:19 am
one look at this season’s home football schdule shows just how right you are. I drive four and a half hours one way to see the Dawgs. Half the home schedule for this year is not even worth the effort
BobDawg
February 10th, 2012
8:06 am
JAMBAK, you said it. you almost have to count Fl/Ga as a “home-game” each year to prop up our home schedule. I like what Common Sense said also and rivalries would really heat up with Bama and AuBarn in the East. Could it get as bad as the fanatical Soccer rivalries???? the AD’s will figure this out eventually… Crimson 75 is correct, we ain’t done expanding….
Whiskey Breath
February 10th, 2012
8:14 am
I respect your opinion Bill, but Ga seems to have a tendency to line up those cup cake games.
It is the out of conference games that indicate a cup cake schedule. If I am the Ga fans, I would
be a little ticked. The tickets are too expensive to have to watch cup cake games. I understand
the AD’s make the conference schedules, but it doesn’t mean they don’t dodge the best teams.
CMR is sure aware of it when he was on the hot seat.
RedandBLackDAWG
February 10th, 2012
8:20 am
I would hate to see this old rivalry end due mainly to the fact that the SEC, wanted to make more money and expand it’s TV market. The SEC has won 6 BCS NC’s in a row so I think the visibility is pretty much there in the TV market. The SEC already makes a heck of a lot of money, so I pose the question, “How much is too much”. Does the SEC have any concern for the fans that support them, or is it really just a business for Slive and company? We added two teams, one from the south west and one from the mid west, neither of which, carries the fine tradition of the SEC football schools. I guess the stated purpose was to bring in a bigger market share of the TV world, thus more money. Other than that reason, what was the purpose? The name SEC is really a misnomer now with these two teams being far from the South Eastern U.S. geographically. When you start making moves that destroy the very fiber of your conference and could endanger rivalries that have existed for over a century, just for some money, the conference could live without, it is time to look at a shake up at the SEC head quarters.
Post #116: Friday Morning Hangover « sugarfalling
February 10th, 2012
8:31 am
[...] Blawg:“Dumping Georgia-Auburn rivalry would be bad for college football.” Just in case you haven’t gotten the point [...]
gbal
February 10th, 2012
8:49 am
Whiskey Breath – Be realistic and fair in your comments….
Every SEC team schedules a couple of cupcake games each year so dont try to say its a UGA thing. Look at Bama, LSU, UT, Fla, AU, … we all scheduled these games last year. No exception.
TDF
February 10th, 2012
8:51 am
Still@theKool-aidBAR
February 9th, 2012
5:04 pm
hahahahahah never once been owned by anyone sorry clown. Keep trying though maybe one day you can beat me. But until then sit in the corner little boy.
TDF
February 10th, 2012
8:52 am
Still@theKool-aidBAR
February 9th, 2012
5:23 pm
hahahahahah you quote a conspiracy theory and Snoop- one of the biggest clowns on here??? ahahahhahhahaha keep trying loser.
TDF
February 10th, 2012
8:54 am
bamaboy
February 9th, 2012
9:52 pm
Funny considering SEC office makes the schedule for SEC games retard
TDF
February 10th, 2012
8:55 am
gtkenz
February 9th, 2012
11:30 pm
Actually moron, if we lost the AU rivaly, we would rotate west teams in 2 2 year spots, like it was before the expansion. Learn something before you post
gbal
February 10th, 2012
8:56 am
we could maintain the 8 games and rotate a divisional team off the schedule each year to allow picking up a non divisional game or maintain the rivalry games.
In fact, I wouldnt mind rotating two divisional games off each year to pick up a second non divisional SEC game.
OR even ditch the fixed divisions and shuffle all SEC teams from year to year to allow playing each confrence team more often. Could maintain a couple of rivalry/in state/border war games each year and
TDF
February 10th, 2012
8:57 am
Whiskey Breath
February 10th, 2012
8:14 am
Every SEC team has easy OOC not just UGA.
TheItalianDawg
February 10th, 2012
9:00 am
I think Auburn will be the biggest loser as they lived on the Georgia Talents for many years and losing this game with Georgia willl affect their recruiting
BigGAdawg
February 10th, 2012
9:05 am
Make the UGA/UF game home and home and just add one more year to the rotation between the schools in the other conference. Otherwise LEAVE IT ALONE!!!
crossdawg
February 10th, 2012
9:16 am
Maybe some AD’s need to grow a set & continue with the big rival games. Since they don’t hesitate to continue to squeeze the fans for every possible $$, I feel that they owe us somethink back.
robodawg
February 10th, 2012
9:21 am
This is so stupid it should not even be crossing McGarity’s lips.
The St Louis television market is not worth losing the South’s Oldest Rivalry.
TDF
February 10th, 2012
9:25 am
robodawg
February 10th, 2012
9:21 am
If the SEC can get a big enough market they can get out of their contract with ESPN and sign a better one similar to what Texas got. Basically you can blame Texas for all this shifting going on. Once they got that contract it angered the others in the big 12 and they started to look for another conf and then it was a domino effect accross the confs.
Joe
February 10th, 2012
9:28 am
Put Au and UA in the East, move UK to the West and see how many people will come to the UF,UGA,AU,UT,SC,Vandy, and UA play.
Then you would have LSU, TAM, UM, MSU, Ole Miss Ark, and UK. in the West. Play three across. that would be nine. Half would have 4 home games the other half would have five home games the problem then is the ga uf game being neutral. If at anytime we play tech in atlanta that means we could actually have five away sec games one neutral game and tech in atlanta and three home sec games plus two home games to schedule making our schedule six away one neutral and five home games. That would hurt financially.
Dumping GT is a great idea and here is why...
February 10th, 2012
9:44 am
UGA needs to dump the home and away thing with GT. Tech does not bring a thing to the table and in fact, if UGA wins ( usually) UGA does not move up in the polls, like this past year. We won but dropped a notch. They bring nothing to the table, gang. GREAT SCHOOL GT is but in football ……………. they bring NOTHING to this $$$ discussion.
Auburn IS in our conference, and ONE OF OUR BIGGEST three games. This UGA/AU game does get good TV ratings around the larger area and we are BOTH SEC caliber upper level teams and usually one or the other, OR sometimes both, could be playing for much higher post season stakes …………..like a trip to ATL to play in the SEC CG or vying for selection to a major bowl. This is a core reason why UGA needs to dump GT and play them maybe 2 times over 5 years.
To defeat Tech means that we ( UGA) defeated a school that has been to ONLY three major bowls since 1955 ……………… the 1955 Sugar, 67 Orange and 09 Orange. AU and UGA in this same era of 56 years? has likely been to the Cotton Bowl maybe 7 or 8, 10 times times, Sugar 10-12-15 times and Orange Bowl maybe 2, 3, 4 times; not to mention tons of almost major majors of Capital One and Outback Bowls. Tech has never been considered for these bowls.
Dump Georgia Tech …………………..an idea who s time has come.
JaxDawg2
February 10th, 2012
9:49 am
Move Bama and Auburn to the SEC East…move Missouri and Vanderbilt to the SEC West. Problem solved.
TDF
February 10th, 2012
10:01 am
JaxDawg2
February 10th, 2012
9:49 am
Then you have a lopsided east with an easy west???
Jerry Blooger
February 10th, 2012
10:12 am
We go to games. All of my family would rather dump auburn than tech. Just saying, auburn fans at their place are the worst in college football period.
TDF
February 10th, 2012
10:23 am
Jerry Blooger
February 10th, 2012
10:12 am
AU is a much better game than GT. At least AU can beat us even now and then.
TDF
February 10th, 2012
10:24 am
every now and then
UGA Insider
February 10th, 2012
10:28 am
College football is on full self destruct mode now. Ratings and attendance are down across the board and fans like me are getting bored fast. I personally have never watched so much NFL in my lifetime…yet so little FBS. Let’s be honest… the MNC was a total snoozefest and the ratings were down 20%. College football is trending downward in all states except the state of Alabama and those reasons are obvious.
G-Dawg
February 10th, 2012
10:28 am
If we drop Tech..will it drop their Trolls too on here?
G-Dawg
February 10th, 2012
10:31 am
No Bama or Burn in West? Then LSU rolls each year!!!
G-Dawg
February 10th, 2012
10:31 am
No Bama or Burn in West? Then LSU rolls each year!!!
gbal
February 10th, 2012
10:41 am
Its differet no doubt, but I like the idea of breaking up the fixed east/west divisions…
Have two fixed rivalry/in state/border war games each year…
Have the 7 team divisions rotate each year… 3 teams rotate out and 3 new teams rotate in. This allows two consecutive years that you would play a team, which works for a home and away.
It allows all SEC teams to play each other twice every 4 years minimum.
The winners of each division play in the SECCG as current.
Id much rather play the current wast teams more often than alwyas playing UT, SC, Vandy, Kentucky. Good to mix up the games and feel more like a single confrence than two separate confrences.
JJohnson
February 10th, 2012
10:45 am
No Georgia-Auburn? Not just no, but hell pecker no.
TDF
February 10th, 2012
10:47 am
gbal
February 10th, 2012
10:41 am
dont forget the SEC is cyclical. Before too long Florida and Tenn will be up and LSU and Bama down. And the east is back to being the harder division like it was 5-10 years ago. Its just how it goes in the SEC.
HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAH
February 10th, 2012
11:43 am
“AU is a much better game than GT. At least AU can beat us even now and then.”
AU owns the all-time win record over UGA. UGA has been very good against Auburn in the CMR.
HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAH
February 10th, 2012
11:44 am
“Just saying, auburn fans at their place are the worst in college football period.”
At least the fans aren’t sitting in jail like UGAG fans.
HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAH
February 10th, 2012
11:46 am
“I think Auburn will be the biggest loser as they lived on the Georgia Talents for many years and losing this game with Georgia willl affect their recruiting”
Says more about UGAG than it does Auburn. Says that UGAG sucks at recruiting in-state talent. Cam Newton for instance.
gbal
February 10th, 2012
11:47 am
yes – the strength will shift at some point but regardless, I think I would like rotating the schedule every year vs playing the same divisional teams each year. drop the “regional divisions… make a new bracket or division each year that rotates teams from year to year. Play your round robbin against your bracket teams and the winner goes to the big game. Rather play all the current west teams every 2 years than the same divisional teams every year.
Mtn Dawg
February 10th, 2012
11:49 am
Mike ‘Slime’ and his cronies should be horse whipped for sacrificing these traditions. Money isn’t everything and never will be.
DawgByte
February 10th, 2012
12:02 pm
I would argue there is no more important rivalry in college football worth saving than UGA and Auburn!
I defy anyone to identify a more COMPETITIVE series across college football than that of Georgia and Auburn, with a single win separating the two teams. AU owns the series lead by one game, while UGA has scored more points. This is also I highly unique rivalry, which includes mutual respect and a classy relationship amongst fan bases.
If a choice has to be made I would argue for dropping Georgia Tech. Tech has proven year-after-year that they can not compete against Georgia on the football field. Moreover, their fan base does not support their program with enough enthusiasm to warrant allowing them the privilege to play UGA.
TDF
February 10th, 2012
12:06 pm
HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAH
February 10th, 2012
11:43 am
Yea I know they do. Like you said I was refering to Richts tenure