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
One, two, free, fo, fi, them der Gator don't take no jive!
June 8th, 2010
9:44 pm
PSU #1,
I think we’d all agree that JoePa is a living legend. He’s has been and continues to be the class of college football. I, for one, am glad that the will retire witht he most wins in Div 1. I don’t think you’ll ever see another coach again with that kind of longevity at one school. The almighty dollar rules these days.
GR82BAG8R
June 8th, 2010
9:57 pm
Miami # 1 – The SEC is the premier conference in college football, period. Miami and Florida State are a shell of their former powerhouse selves, and you know it. The SEC would stomp you into further oblivion.
Oh, and by the way, all you Georgia fans that keep dismissing Georgia Tech’s 1990 championship – - get over it. They were the only undefeated team in the country, and have more claim to the 1990 title than Colorado, who needed five downs to beat Notre Dame. That being said, Miami was the best team at the end of that season, and proved it by obliterating Texas.
The SEC should only expand if the new schools have the stadium and attendance levels that equal the SEC-caliber, and that means 80K. That leaves out Georgia Tech.
Delbert D.
June 8th, 2010
10:13 pm
Paul W. Bryant “What does academics have to do with getting first downs?”
I dunno. It didn’t seem to help Reggie Ball.
Delbert D.
June 8th, 2010
10:18 pm
GR82BAG8R – “stadium and attendance levels that equal the SEC-caliber, and that means 80K”
Should the SEC contract? Replace non-compliers?
By the way, I wish you’d change your ID. It gives me a headache every time I try to read it. Otherwise, we’re fine.
Otis from Baymerry
June 8th, 2010
10:21 pm
Dawgs suck. Even the few who haven’t been arrested suck.
Bezel
June 8th, 2010
10:26 pm
Maybe the Ivy League could take UGA for comic relief. Show some of the drunk players staggering around, or show Dawg fans rushing to their mailbox to see if their unemployment check came. You know, real-life stuff like that.
Delbert D.
June 8th, 2010
10:31 pm
My last post of the night: ‘Some really serious stuff going on out there’
Since when did Mark Richt start talking like Chipper Jones?
BarryH
June 8th, 2010
10:33 pm
It’s kind of sad to see all the Dawg fans getting so excited this year (just like the year before, the year before that, etc.). How long is it going to take for UGA fans to realize that UGA is simply no longer relevant in the SEC? In the national picture, UGA isn’t even a blip on the radar, and hasn’t
been since the preseason #1 ranking two years ago.
Sit back and be grateful for the seven or eight wins you’ll get every year. Coaching genius Mark Richt may take you to 10-2 or even 11-1 occasionally, but Florida will still win the SEC, meaning no BCS bowls and no top 15 final ranking. Most years, UGA will be very lucky to finish in the top 25, and only after a big bowl win over a nobody opponent.
It’s a different world now, and Dawg fans, like Miami and Ole Miss fans, need to adjust their expectations downward to reflect reality.
Unfortunately nothing is going to change until UGA changes its mediocre coaching. That’s where the difference is, and that’s why everyone outside Bulldog Nation just laughs at Dawg fans getting so excited year after year about what a great recruiting class UGA gets. It doesn’t matter how many
blue chip high school plays go to UGA, they simply don’t get the coaching they would get at Florida or Alabama, to name two schools whose programs are far ahead of UGA. And that’s not going to change as long as Mark Richt is in Athens.
Get your heads out of the sand and face reality. And mediocrity and irrelevance.
That and being the pathetic laughingstock of the nation.
Loquatious T. Futtbuck
June 8th, 2010
10:45 pm
The Techies didn’t like my joke, so they censored it. Seig heil!
joe schmoe
June 8th, 2010
10:52 pm
Who cares?
Bunch of self-absorbed morons.
col fot
June 8th, 2010
11:07 pm
Those schools are trying to load up to compete with the SEC. The Southeastern Conference is so much stronger than the other conderences, it’s a joke. Top to bottom the SEC is in a class of their own and have been for years. How many teams out there would like to face the likes of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Auburn, LSU, Ole Miss, South Carolina and all the others on weekly bases. Sure they might win one here and there, but they would be so beaten up they would learn real quick what playing in the SEC is all about. SEC football is played hard and fast with great coaching.
Clempson
June 8th, 2010
11:52 pm
exactly how many ACC conference titles has Clemson won in the past 20 years? And they think they can actually win one in the SEC?
Smokey the Bear
June 9th, 2010
12:21 am
Nick Marshall is a dawg yall!!!!!!!!
» SEC links: A look at the academic side of expansion John Clay’s Sidelines
June 9th, 2010
8:44 am
[...] Mark Richt thinks expansion is a serious subject, writes Tim Tucker of the AJC. [...]
michaelj
June 9th, 2010
9:18 am
Why would SEC screw up a perfect situation? What the SEC’s got is exactly what makes the other idiots loony. What I want to know is, are theose morons still gonna call it the Big Ten when they add those subprime teams. I mean, they might get Notre Dame with guaranteed six losses and pity bowl. People are talking about Missour like that beats Aw-buhni? This is all hillarious. It will still bethe Big Ten, even if its 16, right? Players don’t go to math class. Maroons. They still won’t make SEC TV money.
GT would not be an excellent candidate? You want a rival, not a wuss that pretty much lies down every year.
Good Ole Boy
June 9th, 2010
9:36 am
Who really cares about the Big Ten in these parts?
As the late great Lewis Grizzard once said:
“Ohio St. vs. Michigan is about as exciting as watching two mules fighting over a turnip”.
The SEC Rules !!!
gtmoney
June 9th, 2010
10:27 am
Dawg/SEC fans think about this… What do you think about Tech joining th Big Ten and having then having Big Ten Championship game in Atlanta? If I were you I know I wouldnt like the Big Ten stomping around in the heart of the SEC
Dwayne Morrison
June 9th, 2010
10:53 am
I think the best-case scenario for Tech would be to re-join the SEC if invited. Bobby Dodd would be packed every Saturday if the Jackets were playing the likes of Auburn, Tennessee, Florida and Alabama, rather than Duke, Wake Forest, NC State and Virginia.
Les Grossman
June 9th, 2010
1:27 pm
I don’t know what kind of power play someone is trying to pull here, but the SEC is my territory jack.
Joe P.
June 9th, 2010
1:36 pm
RESPONSE TO:
_________________________________________________________________________
bill_in_atl
June 8th, 2010
4:46 pm
To those who claim it’s all about research money instead of athletic money and use the claim that it’s 10x to 20x higher, I only ask one question. Where is all the extra money coming from and why would it go to an AAU school that isn’t already receiving it?
Are you saying that by joining the Big Ten a school like Maryland will instantly end up with $200 Million in extra research grants that they wouldn’t have otherwise gotten?
I realize the research grants are huge, but again why would the recipient change based solely on who plays in what football conference?
This doesn’t pass the logic test. If I’m wrong, please explain. I’m open to hearing how it would work.
_______________________________________________________________________________
This article from Omaha explains it pretty well ….
http://www.omaha.com/article/20100609/NEWS01/706099919
Reality Check
June 9th, 2010
2:32 pm
It’s all about $$$$$$. SEC, ACC, Pac andBig 10s will all do what FOX tells them to do. By the way, FOX doesn’t give a hoot who finished third to Bama and Fla. the last 12 years.
Kevin in Dallas
June 9th, 2010
2:36 pm
Don’t discount Texas and the SEC just yet. The Pac is making a desperation move to add more viewers…because nobody outside of the pacific time zone really watches. I suspect that the Big 12 South will see that such a move benefits the west coast teams more than it benefits the Big 12 South schools.
Texas is gonna take care of Texas. And in the short term, that means being the Big Dog of the “new and improved” Big 12. The SEC has a lot to offer UT…a big portion of which is its own tv network…something the big 11 and pac whatever can’t do.
1980 was so long ago
June 9th, 2010
10:38 pm
4 decades gone
Ron Mexico
June 10th, 2010
9:08 am
Twitter is gay, and for little girls AJC.
Ron Mexico
June 10th, 2010
9:09 am
And so is the guy who posted above me. Your a loser bro, probably have been for 5 decades.
lance
June 10th, 2010
10:09 am
Add Texas to the West and Clemson in the East. Texas out of conference big game will be A&M ie like UGA v. GT. Clemson can still keep the FSU battle going. That is all we need.
The cause of it all
June 10th, 2010
11:12 am
The root caus of it all is the fabulous $$$ success that the SEC has enjoyed with their ultra popular SEC Championship game and the always ensuing NCs. Even the third place SEC team or even the 4th place team ends up in a fabulous bowl.
Could the SEC trim out their league with one or maybe three additions? Sure ………..but do we need that in order to compete with the emerging leagues ……….probably not. If the SEC added a team or two, I would vote for TX and TX A & M with their historically great traditions.
We do not need to add any ACC schools because when SEC games are on TV in the south, fans usually flick on the SEC games, vs say Va Tech and NC or MD and Boston College. Beyond an FSU, or possibly Miami, there are no ACC teams worthy of adding market share. It is all about $$ and so, the ACC teams are not really a TV draw, beyond these two.
GT? They would add nothing to the table. Nothing. SEC already owns the Ga market and the Atlanta market without having to adopt another welfare program like Tech.
Culture has to be a good fit
June 10th, 2010
11:18 am
Texas and Texas A&M are more culturally similar to the SEC. Folks, this is important. I cannot see TX going to LA in a home/away scenario and being happy playing the REAL USC in front of 34,000 fans. This is so key to all of the merger talk. Same is true with A&M.
They could play in Athens in front of nearly 100,000 fans and in Knoxville in front of over 100,000 fans or in Auburn or Florida iwth the same crowds. Imagine the GREAT NEW RIVALRY between LSU and these two TX schools. Now we are talking big boy football ……..not Oregon or UCLA. That talk is laughable, when discussed with Texas football fans. Laughable.
The SEC is a better cultural fit …………..they also draw the fans which spells ……….$$$$$.
MIAMI # 1
June 10th, 2010
9:57 pm
miami and f.s.u. would be a good bet,,both teams are on the rise and most s.e.c. are weak,,,
BIG SWILL
June 11th, 2010
9:15 am
Texas,Oalahoma,Am,O state coming to the SEC will be like starting a whole new progam you cant win.