Richt on expansion: ‘Some really serious stuff going on out there’
MACON -– Mark Richt has heard the latest wave of rumors about the Pac-10 possibly annexing half of the Big 12 and about the Big Ten perhaps accelerating its own expansion timetable.
Still, he can’t quite see all of this reaching the SEC.
“It’s really interesting to hear that it’s such a hot topic,” Richt said today at the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame, where he and two of his UGA players joined representatives from other college football programs around the state at the annual Pigskin Preview. “I think [part of it is that] this time of year people are just looking for things to talk about. But I think there is some really serious stuff going on out there.”
Even so . . .
“I don’t know about our league,” Richt added. “I really feel like we’ve got a great league, and we all believe that. We’ve got a tremendous SEC Championship Game; we’ve got our TV contract; we’re 98 percent full every time we roll out the carpet, so to speak; and we’ve had a lot of national champions lately.
“So I don’t think we’re in a rush to change much. We kind of like the way things are going.
“But I really do think that [SEC] commissioner [Mike] Slive will make a good decision. . . . I’m sure he’s got to be thinking about what’s going on in the college landscape today, and I think he’ll keep us on top.”
Richt’s thoughts largely match those expressed by other coaches, athletics directors and school presidents at the SEC meetings last week. The consensus seemed to be that they’re happy with the SEC as currently constituted and would like to keep it as is, but that they also recognize the league must be open to change if the landscape is altered dramatically by expansion and realignment in other conferences.
Richt said the topic came up in coaches’ meetings in Destin. “I don’t think anybody believes something drastic is going to happen [in the SEC] anytime soon,” he said.
———
Richt and two Georgia players, linebacker Akeem Dent and wide receiver Kris Durham, answered reporters’ questions at the Pigskin Preview event. More of what they had to say is posted on twitter.com/ajcuga. Please follow us there.
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180 comments Add your comment
Uneasy Rider
June 8th, 2010
5:07 pm
Just imagine the if the current intrastate rivalry games had conference title implications: UF-FSU, UF-Miami, UGA-GT and SC-Clemson.
Talk about TV Ratings!!!
Pen Is Head
June 8th, 2010
5:07 pm
I kind of agree with Ms. Humpurmom, Georgia Tech would be an great addition, but Clemson and Virginia Tech would be good as well. This is really going to get interesting!
Chris
June 8th, 2010
5:08 pm
There is something to gain by adding Clemson. You gain a another big, full stadium on one of the best campuses for tailgaiting and spending an afternoon or evening. You turn on the tv and you see rubbing the rock, running down the hill instead of the Canes in front of 30,000 in Landshark, Sunlife stadium. You see you conference add a good program that is within the footprint and adds to the tightness and rivalries of the conference. You add another state rivalry. You add another short drive to go and see your teams play. But if you want to just add a big city market, then Miami, or GT is your team. If you want to add another state, then Kansas, or VT. My perfect scenarion is for the SEC to snag Tex AM for the big new state and area, then use schools already in the footprint to fill the other three spots to keep the SEC from looking like the Pac-16 or ACC or Big 16 and stretching all over the place. I would like to see Tex AM, Clemson, FSU, GT or for two states Tex Am, Clemson, FSU and VT. GT may be more interested in Big Ten. The proximity and intensity is what has made the SEC the best.
Delbert D.
June 8th, 2010
5:14 pm
bill_in_atl –
Not quite like that. Maryland (and all Big Ten members) are members of the Association of American Universities, an invitation-only organization. One of the criteria for acceptance is how much research money the institution already gets. Among other things, this group sets policy on federal research and how the money should be spent. About 57% of all federal research grant dollars go to the 62 members of the AAU. The most recent of their published data is $17.2 billion to AAU members in 2007.
The Big Ten schools collaborate among themselves on research grant and other academic issues. They are all AAU, and they will accept only AAU members, with the exception of Notre Dame. Notre Dame is a very highly regarded academic university. In May, they exceeded $100 million in research grants for the first time (and this is a catholic school, which obviously make them selective about some grants.) Georgia Tech, which was was accepted into the AAU in April, has research grants totaling $593 million. It is the first new AAU member in 9 years.
OHIO STATE FAN
June 8th, 2010
5:26 pm
Every time we lose to a SEC school, I just sit back a smile thinking about all the research dollars the BIG 10/11 receives.
GT FAN
June 8th, 2010
5:30 pm
OHIO STATE FAN, I understand how you feel, everytime we lose to UGA, I just sit back and smile thinking about how well I did on the math portion of the SAT.
Delbert D.
June 8th, 2010
5:31 pm
It’s a matter of perspective, I guess. In reality, many universities play football. I think among some in the fan bases, their favorite teams play school.
It's hard to be humble when you're a DAWG !!!
June 8th, 2010
5:34 pm
Every time we whip GT, I just sit back and smile about the high quality academic and social education I received in Athens. Thet two-fold education has benefited me in ways that you pencil-neck, pocket-protector wearing, slide rule losers on the flats could never even comprehend. HBTD !!!!
Cedartown Dawg
June 8th, 2010
5:36 pm
Richt has bigger problems than conference expansion to worry about. For example, why are more UGA football players arrested every year than at any other school in the country?
And why is UGA near the top of the list for penalties?
And most importantly, when will he hire a fashion coordinator to get the uniform colors right this year?
Oh… And when will UGA beat Florida?
Worry about those little things, Coach Richt.
UGA FAN
June 8th, 2010
5:38 pm
OHIO STATE FAN and GT FAN, Everytime I see you on our schedule, I just sit back and smile. Everyone who attends a BIG 10/11 or ACC school is better than anyone who attends a SEC school, except on saturday. Hell, 6 out of 7 days a week ain’t bad. Could you imagine how great your life would be if this were a research blog and not a football blog.
WEDGY NAN
June 8th, 2010
5:47 pm
Hiding BEHIND academics, when it come to talking football starts in elementry school and festers its self in highschool.
Delbert D.
June 8th, 2010
6:02 pm
When I first started following college football, the big news in university-assisted research was the polio vaccine and the details on the Manhattan Project. A lot of stuff has been developed or discovered since then. Football has changed from playing both ways to free substitution.
BigTimeTechFan
June 8th, 2010
6:04 pm
If it happens the ACC will pick up:
Alabama
Auburn
Florida
Georgia
ACC Coastal:
Ga Tech
Clemson
Georgia
Florida
Miami
FSU
Alabama
Auburn
That would be a sweet sub-Conf, best football division in the country
Serena
June 8th, 2010
6:05 pm
…the high quality academic and social education I received in Athens.
High quality academic education at UGA? What planet are you from, you bozo?
Social education, yes. You partied it up and stayed drunk most of the time.
sam
June 8th, 2010
6:14 pm
sounds like the PAC-10 is desperate to compete with the SEC
hjh
June 8th, 2010
6:26 pm
south car got beat by U Conn
LSU beat by Penn State
Ky beat by Clemson
SEC is no better or worse than the other top 3 conferences.
Lenny
June 8th, 2010
6:28 pm
The SEC is on top of the football now but don’t fool yourself into thinking it is not impervious to change. Conference power can be cyclical and the SEC should be ready to counter actions taken by other conferences. Yes, academics may have a hand deciding who goes where but the bottom line on conference expansion is TV ratings areas, broadcast revenues, and geographic footprints. You’re deluding yourself if you think the Pac 10 adding the Big 12 six wouldn’t be a conference capable of challenging the SEC OR Big 10. If the SEC expands I would like to get Texas A&M (Texas is just too high maintenance) and Virginia Tech first. That expands the SEC into Houston, Dallas, and Washington D.C metros. Next, I would prefer FSU since they are a national brand and would lock down the state of Florida and another Texas or Oklahoma school. Adding in the West will open up that area to recruiting and give LSU and Arkansas more geographic rivalries which they need.
Greensboro, Georgia
June 8th, 2010
6:32 pm
*
……. .Nesbitt for Heisman ……..
bird dawg
June 8th, 2010
6:42 pm
Here’s a thought. If sec adds 4, make duke and unc 2 of the 4 and the sec would be the top football and basketball conference (only if 4 are added, if only two then go football heavy ie fsu, clemson, va tech, wvu, etc.) Any thoughts?
GoDawgs
June 8th, 2010
6:53 pm
Based on logistics for all sports and good overall sports programs with SEC rivalries already, Clemson and Ga Tech would be the best fit. Everyone wants to talk Texas and for football it’s great. You have to take the entire sports program into account with travel. I think it would be to much for them as well as current SEC schools to go through that with each sport.
thunderbull56
June 8th, 2010
6:58 pm
Bring back the old Southwest Conference.Houston,SMU,TCU,Texas Tech,Texas,Texas A&M,Arkansas,Baylor.Add UTEP and New Mexico,Okl,Okl St,Tulsa,Col and Col St.Add BYU, Utah,Boise St.,Nevada to Pac whatever west.Add NC,,GT,FSU,Miami to SEC.Consolidate Big East and ACC to fourteen, sixteen.Boston College, Syracuse,Buffalo,West Virginia,U Conn,Maryland,Virginia,N C State,Clemson,Marshall(West Virginia),UCF,USF,Pitt,Rutgers,if they don’t big ten it.
Tide Roll
June 8th, 2010
7:02 pm
Please Richt, Just one year and one year only – Sturdivant, Glenn, Burnette, Anderson, Davis, and you’ll win the East. Play ‘em and win the East Don’t and you may be gone. Your problem was, is, and always will be, your refusal to play the best athletes on the offensive line. READ THIS: Florida Gators – Nixon, Johnson, Pouncey, Hurt, Gilbert. That’s Florida’s offensive line. You have the same if not better talent yet won’t play them as a unit, thus year after year the Gators own you . You moved Kiante Tripp after assuring him he would be a first round draft pick as a offensive tackle, and now have incredibly moved bean anderson to defense. one has to wonder if there is another reason thses kids aren’t allowed to play as a unit, as they are in Florida.
Me
June 8th, 2010
7:11 pm
Yep, just face it you mangy mutts, Florida is your owner and master!
bill_in_atl
June 8th, 2010
7:30 pm
Delbert, I still don’t know if I can agree that moving the to Big Ten conference to compete in sports would get a school extra tens of millions in research grants. If so then some folks need to be locked up for corruption.
Otis from Mayberry
June 8th, 2010
7:35 pm
I think Clemson in the SEC is a long shot, do you really think they want to lose in Georgia 3 times a year. Tech, Dawgs and the Chick fil a bowl. O wait they probaly would not be bowling with 8 losses a year.
PSU #1
June 8th, 2010
7:37 pm
Until all the expansion talk, I never realised how good the Big Ten is in academics. It uterally rules any conference of public universities.
Big Ten 9/10 are Public Ivories (Northwestern is private). SEC, just 2 Ivories (UGA and UF)
Big Ten All AAU member, SEC, just Vandy and UF
UF is by far the best in academics and athletics.
Need I say, coach Paterno will have 400 victories (about as many as all active SEC coaches combined) if he wins six this season (a given since we’re a pre-season top 10), and he does not die on the gridiron (it’s certainly not a given that dude will make it until early January, he’s like 2.5 times as old as Lane Kiffen)…and oh yeah, JoePa never had a NCAA violation in his 45 years as head coach or 60 years on the staff).
I’ll take academics as #1 and athletics as a close second over athletics as #1 and academics as a distant #19th.
Otis from Mayberry
June 8th, 2010
7:38 pm
Now that Teblow is gone we will see the Gators the most talented under achievers around. O wait we saw that last year!!!!!!
Otis from Mayberry
June 8th, 2010
7:40 pm
You take your academics for those states that are declining in all aspects of life except rust collection. This is about football and we own your butt!!!!
PSU #1
June 8th, 2010
7:49 pm
Well Otis from Mayberry , there is a reason I moved from Pittsburgh to Atlanta three days after I graduated from college. That reason is jobs. And that demographic change is hurting the Big 10, especially Michigan.
PSU #1
June 8th, 2010
8:02 pm
BTW Otis from Mayberry Penn State versus the SEC since 1992 PSU is 5-2. That sounds like we have your conference’s a$$ (albeit three of those wins are against Tennessee!) And I also recall PSu beating UGA in a Sugar Bowl for a National Championship.
Delbert D.
June 8th, 2010
8:21 pm
bill_in_atl -
Interesting point, since these are government grants. However, the government is the most likely source of not only corruption, but also ineptitude. That’s why they allow for non-government oversight. The afore-mentioned Manhattan Project is an example. The oversight was civilian, and eventually became the Atomic Energy Commission. Selected scientists and other university people, business people and a few former government officials were responsible for advising President Roosevelt on the atomic bomb program. It was so secret that VP Truman wasn’t in the loop.
CFville
June 8th, 2010
8:27 pm
Notre Dame is going to make a decision between Independence, the Big 10 and the ACC. B10 is close and make sense, the ACC is quality and will keep them in the south for recruiting and keep their ties to BC and Navy…., or Independence or death may be their battle cry.
Navy will come to the ACC if ND does.
Connecticut/Rutgers or Connecticut/Kentucky will also join.
Don’t be surprised if KY joins the B10 due to proximity.
guy
June 8th, 2010
8:27 pm
Willie Humper is very smart and an even better smart _ _ _!
Delbert D.
June 8th, 2010
8:30 pm
PSU #1 -
I remember the concern when Rip Engle retired and Joe Paterno was promoted to the job. “Oh, man is Joe going to be as good as Coach Engle? He took us to the Gator Bowl in ‘62.” The Gator Bowl was a pretty big deal at that time.
One, two, free, fo, fi, them der Gator don't take no jive!
June 8th, 2010
8:35 pm
Otis from Mayberry,
Now that is truly one fitting handle. Drunk azz redneck!
PSU #1
June 8th, 2010
8:40 pm
Delbert D. if you actaulayy remember that, your as old as dirt. My only problem with Paterno has always been after a loss, he remembers when we lost to them in ‘52 and Truman commented on the big game! Unfortunately for those us us who were no eligible for Social Security in 1989, those games mean nothing. But at least with the edition of Galan Hall, we have kept up with the times (unlike in ‘93 when we were on the one and had a first against Michigan and tried up the middle, up the middle, up the middle, and again on fouth up the middle…it was a total Big Ten stereotype of running up the middle).
Nothing beats a good Big Ten game like PSU-Iowa in 2005 where the final was 6-4…excepty for that Auburn game a couple of years back that was 3-2.
Delbert D.
June 8th, 2010
8:40 pm
CFville –
I can see that scenario, since Air Force is in a conference. UK would be an unlikely choice for the ACC, since they are at the very bottom of the top tier academically, tied with LSU and Arkansas at #128. The Big Ten certainly would not take them. Otherwise, I agree that the scenarios are about as good as anything I’ve seen.
The Big Ten has offered ND twice, the last being 5 years ago. The presidents at that time agreed to table the issue for another 5 years, which is now. They really want a yes or no answer, because they are going to move on.
Delbert D.
June 8th, 2010
8:46 pm
PSU #1 –
I like the “old as dirt” comment. I resemble that remark.
3 years after he was hired, I was stationed in the Baltimore area, and Penn State got a lot of coverage in the Baltimore Sun. They had a rivalry with Maryland, along with West Virginia and Pitt. Several years later I lived in South Jersey, and Penn State got a lot of coverage in the Philly papers. They had more fans in the greater Philly area than Temple did.
PSU #1
June 8th, 2010
9:00 pm
Delbert D.
I recall several years ago when PSu played Temple yearly, the only games that Temple had an attendence over 5k were PSU (fans who could not get ticket to home games at PSU). I also recall that temple was almost kicked out of Div 1A for lack of attendance.
Yes, PSU has way more fans in Philly than any college team (our paid dues almuni association is the largest in the country with over 500,000 paying members, and over 2,000 of them in metro Atlanta [which probably makes us as big a GA tech in Atlanta!]).
But yeah, I’ll be the first to admit JoePa is old as dirt…a few years ago he had to run off the sidelines and through the huddle to get to the locker room. Every one wondered what was happening, was he just informed his wife died? Nope, as an old dude, he had to go the the $hitter, after the game he said the he would have been more embarassed had he not run off quickly.
Hell, the reason he was in the booth most of last year, was he injured himself demonstarting how to do an on-sides kick. How many 83 year old coaches (all 6 or so of them in all levels of CFB) actually demonstate how to play.
I like watching the SEC, it’s by far the best conference right now. No one can hold a candle, but JoePa has elevated himself above all coaches (Eddie Robinson included). No that Bobby has retired, I seriously doubt that any couch will ever have 394 wins (and counting) again, much less that many wins at a single school…and his salary is “only” in the mid 700’s. But he is such a character, that he takes more pride in his graduation rate and the library annex that his fundraising built than any of his wins. I like coaches Dooley, Bryant, Hayes, and Schembeckler, but Paterno has outlasted everyone. Hell, he coaching the gandkids of some of his players.
PSU #1
June 8th, 2010
9:10 pm
I’ll also point out that PSU was undefeated and untied in ‘68, ‘69, ‘73, ‘94…and did not even get a share of the national championships those years. Name any other coach who had 4 endeafeated/untied season that did not get a championship. There are none. Paterno embodies the best that the NCAA has to offer in academics and athletics.
Delbert D.
June 8th, 2010
9:10 pm
PSU #1 – JoePa has a bunch of years on me. I do *not* remember when he quarterbacked the Nittany Lions. Growing up in Georgia, most of the information came from Street and Smith’s College Football preseason book (I lived for that magazine to hit the stores), and short AP/UPI writeups (if any) in the Sunday paper for everybody but SEC schools.
Gomer from GT
June 8th, 2010
9:12 pm
DA on no.ave.
Loquatious T. Futtbuck
June 8th, 2010
9:13 pm
Are there ANY straight people left in the peepo’s Wookas Repubik of Botslanta?
Gomer from GT
June 8th, 2010
9:14 pm
Say hey to goober.
PSU #1
June 8th, 2010
9:21 pm
One of the things I alway admired at Coach Holtz (Lou), he could be p;aying the worst team in CFB, yet he would still describe the upcoming game as a challenge, and after the win he would always say the game was a lot closer than the final score. Only coaches with inferiority complexes (I’m talking to you Steve Spurrier) run up the score in some attempt to prove that they are better. A good coach let’s his players character’s speak for themselves.
MIAMI # 1
June 8th, 2010
9:28 pm
BULLDOG’S ARE NOT A VERY GOOD TEAM OR ARE MOST OF THE S.E.C. TEAM’S,,MIAMI AND FSU WOULD RULE IN THE S.E.C. AND LITTLE TEAMS LIKE WAKE FORREST WOULD WIN THE S.E.C. CHAMPIONSHIP,,POOR BULLDOGS
MIAMI # 1
June 8th, 2010
9:31 pm
THERE IS NOTHING GOOD TO SAY ABOUT THE S.E.C.
THE COACH
June 8th, 2010
9:35 pm
I’m tired of hearing this crap about expansion. I’m trying to relax in the mountains of Georgia. I do not really care who u guys pick, big 10, 12, 16,……..I really don’t give a dam. Because if Texas is the key, well I suppose we’ve proved we are the key. Texas don’t wann come here, haaa haaaaa haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. What do u think Mrs. Terry? “haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ahhahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.”
Nicholas Saban. mess w/ me i breaka you face!
THE COACH
June 8th, 2010
9:37 pm
also if the real nick saban finds out how bad i just spelled all that…………… he may just get mad as hell and call me.
n.s.
Paul W. Bryant
June 8th, 2010
9:42 pm
What does academics have to do with getting first downs?