UGA’s McGarity between rock and hard place on SEC scheduling
The SEC’s athletic directors are meeting this week in Nashville on what to do about the football schedule in the wake of expansion, and it sounds like UGA’s Greg McGarity is beginning to waver in his opposition to adding a ninth conference game each season.
That’s because, basically, the SEC schools giving up a cupcake nonconference game is the best, least disruptive way to ensure that the traditional cross-divisional Georgia-Auburn and Alabama-Tennessee rivalries are maintained as an annual fixture.
Up to now, McGarity was like most coaches and AD’s in the conference: opposed to a nine-game conference schedule — despite the fact it would most likely draw more TV money — because they consider it tough enough to survive eight SEC games and don’t want to give up one of those sure home wins they buy from lesser programs hungry for the bucks.
Plus, they say, playing nine conference games would make it very difficult to pull the trigger on the occasional nonconference game against a big-time opponent. That’s especially true for schools like Georgia, Florida and South Carolina that are locked into a game every year against a nonconference in-state rival from a BCS conference.
But as this week’s SEC meetings approached, McGarity said he at least supports discussing the option of nine conference games.
The problem is that if the conference keeps the eight-game schedule in its current configuration, you’ll only play the teams from the other division twice every 12 years, aside from your permanent cross-divisional rival. A lot of folks think that’s too long, which has put the possibility of giving up the permanent rivalries on the table.
Really, only the only permanent rivalries that anyone cares about are Georgia-Auburn and Alabama-Tennessee. The others — Florida-LSU, Arkansas-South Carolina, Vanderbilt-Ole Miss, Kentucky-Mississippi State and Missouri-Texas A&M — don’t have much of a history or haven’t really developed any traction as rivalries.
Talking with the Chattanooga Times Free Press, McGarity asked, “At some point, does the conference make a statement preserving the historical pieces? I hope that there will be a level of concern and compassion for those two rivalry games,” but he acknowledged that, “the worry there is that it would be a 10-4 vote.”
With nine conference games, one of the three cross-divisional games could still be devoted to the permanent rivalries. But as McGarity acknowledged to The Birmingham News, going to nine conference games, as other conferences are doing, also would offer a more attractive product on the field to the ticket-buying fans.
“Many SEC fans have a decision whether to come to our game, or sit at home in front of their 60-inch HDTV,” McGarity said. “Would they be more likely to come to a conference game as opposed to a guaranteed [nonconference] game? I’d probably say yes.”
Other possible solutions to the problem have been floated, including petitioning the NCAA for a waiver to its rule that requires conferences with a championship game to be split into two divisions of at least six teams with each team in a division playing every other team in its division. If the SEC weren’t divided into divisions and simply had the two top teams playing in its championship game, the traditional rivalries would be protected. But whether the schools that don’t really care about traditional cross-divisional rivalries would support such a major upheaval just to protect Georgia-Auburn and Alabama-Tennessee is questionable.
And so it is that you have McGarity willing to talk about adding a ninth conference game. Because, as he told the Times Free Press, “Our top priority in the whole scheduling discussion is maintaining the rivalry with Auburn.”
It’s going to be interesting to see how this plays out.
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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226 comments Add your comment
Joey
March 1st, 2012
9:30 am
“…why do all of you who love UGA football want to make it extremely, terribly, almost impossibly hard on them to go undefeated.”
*********************************************
Monger, going undefeated hasn’t happened in Richt’s first 11 seasons, even with some incredibly talented teams, so a 9-game conference sched won’t keep that from happening.
Richt will see to that himself with 1 or 2 inexplicable losses to underdogs, same as always . . .
huntersdad
March 1st, 2012
9:40 am
come on one win a decade is occasionally ? right?
Joey
March 1st, 2012
9:41 am
“The over the top negative buzz about Richt, Bobo and the basic poor moutthing of the football program did nothing to help us but rather hurt us deeply in securing the players we needed…”
******************************************************
And the constant losing of every big TV game since ‘07, poorly prepared teams, a 14-12 record in ‘09 and ‘10, and invites to only terrible bowls didn’t have anything to do with that?
That takes the cake, blaming “buzz” on a stupid blog for UGA’s problems on the field . . .
robodawg
March 1st, 2012
10:04 am
We added A&M and Mizzou for this? ESPN incited the SEC office to panic (everyone in the whole world is going to superconferences!) and now ESPN is taking expansion to the bank.
This mess has NOTHING to do with giving the alumni and supporters of each team what they want.
Gary
March 1st, 2012
10:07 am
Why not have Tennessee and Auburn trade places? If Tennessee were in the West they would play Bama every year and if Auburn were in the East they would always play Georgia. Problem solved.
Atlanta Gator
March 1st, 2012
10:16 am
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again . . .
I have no interest in watching Gators (or Bulldogs) games played against Louisiana directional schools, Iowa State, Bowling Green, Duke, New Mexico State, Wyoming, UAB, Western Michigan, Coastal Carolina, Florida International, Buffalo, etc. Yes, I am a loyal fan of the Gators and the SEC; no I am not interested in watching a top-25 SEC team beat the crap out of lesser teams from the MAC, MWC, WAC, or the bottom of the other BCS conferences. SEC games, by definition, are meaningful, whether they are played against Alabama or Vanderbilt. Likewise, so are rivalry games against Florida State and Georgia Tech. And while I recognize that one or two early season games against such lesser opponents may serve as game experience for the Gators and Dawgs before the start of the SEC season, I’m sorry, but I will never spend a single minute watching a game against Charleston Southern, either on TV or at the stadium. My time as an adult and a college football fan is better spent elsewhere.
Buckeye
March 1st, 2012
10:32 am
Hey dogs, got hasbrowns?
Dog4Life
March 1st, 2012
10:39 am
No more hashbrowns–traded them to Pryor for tattoos–But Tressel prayed over them.
beanster
March 1st, 2012
10:41 am
@ Gary — Seems logical but then the Ironbowl would be in the same position as UGA v AUB is now.
Thomas Brown
March 1st, 2012
11:59 am
Why do you keep talking about BASEBALL LAST YEAR ? And, then try to compare that with THIS YEAR where hard to believe your basketball team beat us ? That is the only win Georgia tek has over Georgia Bulldogs all season this year.
And, that comes out in your pea-brain as 4-1 advantage ?
Wrong.
Football 1-0 us
Basketball men 0-1 you
that’s it Bubba.
Good try to lump in last year’s baseball.
You ain’t beating us in baseball and were fortunate to beat us in men’s basketball.
You LOST every other sport to us.
All of them, except men’s basketball.
And, you call yourself a math major ?
NERD
murfdawg
March 1st, 2012
12:10 pm
Just go to 15 games, play everybody every year and stop all the whining. Once the presidents see how much money they can make, they will buy into it. Then pay the players. Treat college football like a million dollar hooker, instead of a two dollar prostitute.
Reality Check
March 1st, 2012
1:39 pm
No hashbrowns Buckeye. No major probation either. What about the Cheatin’ Buckeyes.
BTW, it is common knowledge that your 2002 NC Maurice Clerett should have been inelgible to play, but somehow he stayed eligible to play in the game.
Stephen A.Dogg: Play the 9th SEC game and dump the cowardice.
March 1st, 2012
2:48 pm
The SEC administrators knew when ESPN inspired them to expand to 14 teams that the conference would have to go from 8 to 9 in conference games. They didn’t go into the details with the ADs and coaches, but even they should have known what adding teams would ultimately mean. McGarity isn’t between a rock and a hard place, Richt is because he’s fighting the hotseat trying to win SEC games. CMR must man up or get out and accept the fact that he has to play 9 conference games plus Tech and win to continue receiving 3 million a year. UGA went 10-4 in 2011 and won 10 games in a row feeding on OoC cupcakes and SEC cellar-dwellers/middling teams. They went 0-4 in all their marquee matchups versus winning teams, so CMR’s concern/cowardice over the 9th game is somewhat understood. However there are cupcake games within the SEC. Vandy, Kentucky, Ole Miss, and Miss.St have been homecoming sacrifices for decades so knock off the SEC is so tough stuff. Florida and Tennessee have slipped and are not as good as they used to be. Arkansas and So.Carolina are decent programs now, but Alabama and LSU are the real SEC powers at present. A look at the 2012 UGA schedule reveals at least 5 to 6 cupcakes and ESPN & other networks aren’t going to continue to pay out huge amounts for mediocrity in scheduling. Nobody is going to continue to watch UGA struggle through soft schedules. People want to see UGA play and win big games. I won’t be watching the Georgia vs. Buffalo or FAU game, but I will check to see how badly the Dawgs beat those teams. Last season I didn’t watch UGA vs. Vandy and fell asleep on the Ole Miss game because the game was so boring due to Georgia’s offensive problems. I even fell asleep off and on the bowl game vs. UCF and was disgusted with the Bulldog loss. That was a very long, boring, disappointing offensive game against an underdog opponent that Georgia should easily have blown out.
Richt should be concentrating on what he can control such as bringing in a new OC and removing himself (and puppet) from offensive play calling. I guarantee if Richt scraps his antiquated offense and brings in a proven, modern era OC, CMR won’t have to keep scratching the developing bald spot in his head over SEC scheduling. The bottom line is CMR had better win big now (2012), because the 9th SEC game is coming and he won’t be able to use that as an excuse for continued mediocrity. Go Dogs !
Stephen A.Dogg: Play the 9th SEC game and dump the cowardice.
March 1st, 2012
4:37 pm
ESPN is providing national & world-wide exposure to the SEC programs that are smart and bold enough to play the games the world wants to see. Case in point, on the same day Georgia is at home playing the mighty Buffalo Bulls, the defending BCS champion, Alabama Crimson Tide will face off versus the storied Michigan Wolverines. I’m a die-hard Bulldog, but if they were to play those two games at the same time, I’m going to watch “GO BLUE” tangle with the Crimson Tide. I’d shift to UGA-Buffalo on commercials only. Mostly everyone would, especially future recruits. During Bama-Michigan, you know Saban will find a way to talk with the top recruits, once again outworking Richt.
But we at Georgia know that the Bulldogs are not ready for an early season prime-time game against a top ten program. The 2011 season kick-off game at the Ga.Dome vs. Boise St. proved that fact. So are Georgia fans going to pay for and settle for re-run games year after year beating weak teams and being beaten by better coached teams or ranked teams? In a word, NO. CMR must change the offense if he wants to stay at UGA. The defense is stable and in good hands. Saban is beating Richt in many ways than just head to head games and recruiting. It’s past time for Richt to admit to himself that his FSU offenses of the 90s won’t work any longer in todays SEC. He must take a hands off approach and bring in a quality OC that will have total control. Richt, in essence would become a figurehead. But isn’t that what most head coaches are anyway. Saban and Miles are the most respected figurehead coaches in the SEC, but they know they have to stay relevant by winning big games. Sooner or later Richt will learn he must be willing to change or he is doomed. There should not be any further contract extensions beyond this current extension for CMR unless the Dogs drastically improve. If he hasn’t won a national title after 16 or 17 years on the job at UGA, it’s not going to happen. Go Dogs !
michael g.
March 1st, 2012
5:07 pm
For Dawg fans it’s a pick your poison. Stay at 8 conference games, lose the Auburn game. Go to 9 conference games, lose the Georgia Tech game. It all comes down to getting 7 home games a year to pay for the athletic dept.
AltamahaDawg
March 1st, 2012
5:08 pm
Agree robodawg, this is looking more and more like a knee jerkreaction (to a make up set of circumstances) and less like a thought out plan all the time. It’s almost hard to believe that they are actually sitting there, trying to figure out how to schedule SEC football games, now all of a sudden. Worse stilll, it sounds like they weren’t even prepared enough to realize this was the kind of thing that would need to be worked out. Gee, we never thought about our teams playing each other in this new deal.
AltamahaDawg
March 1st, 2012
5:10 pm
Anybody believe that the lower tier teams of the SEC are actually going to vote for never attending a bowl game again?
Still@theKool-aidBAR
March 1st, 2012
5:15 pm
michael g. why does the GT game have to go? UGa needs to BUY a win against Ga Southern? The Big Bad Dawgs are running and hiding from playing a full schedule of games that matter and the fans will pay to see? McGarity was the white chick in the car with DAMON when he was caught carrying the red underwear. McGarity is a wuss. The ONLY COACH at You GEE A that can fill a Jock strap is gone…..Suzanne Yoculan: Sometimes I’ll stick my foot in my mouth, but I say what I feel. If I think my team is unbeatable or whatever, I’ll usually say so. There have been some times where we’ve beaten them and she has said things about equipment, the bars, or judging or whatever.
Whatever, winners make adjustments. So we go back and forth alot, and I probably fuel the fire more with my comments. She’s able to keep her Shirley Temple persona, but if you listen to who says what a lot of it starts in Alabama.
I don’t mind being the Darth Vader team of the SEC. In fact, 10 years ago we made the decision to just embrace that Darth Vader image, and we wear black everywhere we go on the road. We’re an aggressive, confident team. That’s our style. That’s my style. I like enthusiasm. I like excitement. We’ve won a lot of championships because of that.
I don’t believe in failure. I’d rather go out on a limb now and have it break once and a while than to never go out there. That’s just my approach. It’s offensive to some people, but it wins for Georgia. So I recruit athletes who can embrace going for it.
We’re like Steve Spurrier vs. Georgia. No one in Georgia likes Spurrier because he beats us a lot. (PWD: Inferring that no one in Bama likes them b/c they never beat Georgia anymore).
Sarah is more of a southern lady than I am. She does and says the right thing, and has better manners than I do. But that’s not my style. I say what I think.
I respect her. She’s had the same challenges at Bama that I have had at UGA.
I don’t use nouns when I can use verbs. I don’t call my team “underachievers.” I say that they are “underachieving.” I don’t call Sarah Patterson a “loser,” I said “don’t gripe about losing.” I don’t hate anything but cauliflower and turnips.
I have never had a girl transfer away from Georgia in my entire career. What other coach in any sport at any school can say that?
in depth analysis guy
March 1st, 2012
7:01 pm
174th
RED DOG 77
March 1st, 2012
8:37 pm
@Mobile Dawg……Thanks for your response, and I do agree with some of your points particularly that of not using Hutson Mason. But what I believe we are doing is having respectful discussions, something we got away from last year……………and those who say I don’t want to hear any “negative” just didn’t get my point…………This is our team, our family, just as the fans are……….You, Mobile are one that I can respect whether I agree or not, it is your posture [no doubt you are a DGD]………..Me? I want to see what Christian LeMay can do this year, IMO he is our future………….And again, regardless of what my critics might say, Over-the-top negativety hurt us in securing at least four 5* studs……….[see recruiting services opinions] and yes Altamaha, we did have a good class, a class of need, but only one 5* Olineman………….The 2013 class is critical if we are to become a dominant force once again…………I respect all BULLDOG NATION, but please consider what I’ve said, and don’t spin it………….Thanks again for your response Mobile [great town, Mobile]……………..Best to all, RED
Mobile Dawg
March 1st, 2012
9:04 pm
Respectful indeed RED, thanks for the kind words. I stick to facts, or let folks know it’s my opinion. Only once was I caught using infactual information, Altamaha busted me on a series of downs in the Auburn loss in 2005.
Hairy05
March 2nd, 2012
1:07 am
EASY SOLUTION! Move Alabama and Auburn to the East and move Mizzou and Vandy to the West. PROBLEM SOLVED! Mizzou should be in the west anyway and Vandy and Bama are close enough to switch. Man, I hope the ADs are smart enough to think about this easy way to solve all the problems.
Thomas Brown
March 2nd, 2012
3:23 am
Aaron Murray said he’s working hard to “improve on my footwork,” which he believes will improve his accuracy. “I wasn’t as assurate as I need to be.”
___________________________________________________________
# 72 QB nationally Pass Completion Percentage
http://espn.go.com/college-football/statistics/player/_/stat/passing/sort/completionPct/count/41
238 completions of 403 passes 59 % completions
59 % completion percentage career as well
23 Fumbles, 22 Interceptions, 56 Sacks, 174 Carries, 27 Games, 0-9 vs End Top 25
11 Games to-date opponent’s QB Far Better than Aaron Murray
21-35 Boise State : 7 carries minus 33 yards, 1 interception, 16 of 29 passing 2 TD, 6 Sacks
42-45 South Carolina : 6 carries 11 yards, 2 Fumbles, 1 interception, 19 of 29 passing 4 TD, 2 Sacks
10-42 LSU : 8 carries minus 5 yards, 1 Fumble, 2 interceptions, 16 of 40 passing 1 TD, 4 Sacks
30-33 Michigan State : 8 carries minus 13 yards, 1 Fumble, 2 interceptions, 20 of 32 passing 2 TD, 4 Sacks
103-155 Totals in 4 Losses : 29 carries minus 40 yards, 4 Fumbles, 6 interceptions, 71 of 130 Passing 9 TD, 16 Sacks, opponent’s QB Far Better all 4 games (and 11 games to-date opponent’s QB Far Better than Aaron Murray)
Neutral
March 2nd, 2012
6:47 am
Brown = Mr Negative = Techie
Thomas Brown
March 2nd, 2012
7:14 am
I quoted you correctly that you called ten (10) different posters idiots in one blog by you yourself, calling each a Georgia tek fan, stating you are a soldier, drive a red Ferrari and no one should ever criticize the Bulldogs’ football team. Then, you added all these :
“OL still needs to improve
UGa was inches from beating SC and MS
They also looked good for a half vs. LSU
quit worrying.
I still would pick UGa if they played Michigan State again tomorrow!!!
Oh I forgot, you aren’t worrying because you are the enemy.
We need to get our offense cranked-up to give the defense a rest.
Be patient and believe in the Dawgs 1 more year.
take the pressure off Murray.
Yes indeed we need to improve
give Murray another season
I feel your pain”
Neutral = NEGATIVE = Techie
boykin
March 2nd, 2012
8:57 am
Your 1st positive blog..perhaps proving you are less blowhard and have a lil Dawg luvin in ya.