Georgia adds Florida Atlantic to 2012 football schedule — at cost of $1 million
Georgia will pay Florida Atlantic $1 million to play a 2012 football game in Sanford Stadium – the most UGA has ever agreed to pay an opponent for coming to Athens.
The game will be played on Sept. 15, 2012, replacing an originally scheduled game at Louisville on that date. A two-game, home-and-home contract with Louisville was canceled as part of Georgia’s arrangement to play Boise State in the 2011 Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game in Atlanta.
Georgia and Florida Atlantic last week signed a memorandum of understanding on the 2012 game. The document was obtained Tuesday by the AJC under an open-records request.
Florida Atlantic is an FBS (formerly known as Division I-A) team and a member of the Sun Belt Conference. The Owls are 4-7 this season and are coached by 76-year-old Howard Schnellenberger, who was Miami’s coach when Mark Richt, now Georgia’s coach, played quarterback for the Hurricanes.
The $1 million payout has become about the going rate for non-conference FBS opponents who do not require a return visit to their stadium. The most Georgia had agreed to pay previously was $975,000 to Buffalo for a 2012 game and North Texas for a 2013 game.
The agreement between Georgia and Florida Atlantic calls for the Owls to receive 300 complimentary tickets and another 3,000 tickets to purchase and states that there will be a $1 million game cancellation fee.
Florida Atlantic’s non-conference games this season have included a 30-17 loss to Michigan State in Detroit and a 51-17 loss at Texas.
Georgia now has seven home games scheduled in 2012. The Bulldogs’ other non-conference opponents that season, all in Athens, are Buffalo, Georgia Southern and Georgia Tech.
Today’s other posts:
Richt tells callers he’s staying and wants ‘Dream Team’ recruits to join him.
Murray matches a Shockley record; Richt vs. O’Leary in Liberty Bowl?
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
223 comments Add your comment
GaTruth
November 30th, 2010
5:34 pm
Don’t argue with the facts. Oklahoma, TX, UF… ALL schedule easy wins for the reasons stated by half the comments above. What you cannot argue with is that winning the SEC is CLEARLY enough to get you where you want to be – BCS championship. Then we dismantle the opponent (usually). If winning the SEC is enough, it is just stupidity to take an unnecessary risk. If you want competitive, great! That’s what the bowls are for – nothing on the line but bragging rights.
Sweet
November 30th, 2010
5:38 pm
Love it! This is what the top teams do to assure the most victories! Now we just need to get by our tough SEC schedule.
Bulldawg Richie
November 30th, 2010
5:39 pm
Didn’t we also agree to pay Louisville $600,000 to get out of that home and home contract? Regardless, I’m looking forward to the Boise St game in the dome. The 3 – 4 defense should be better and hopefully Houston stays.
Will
November 30th, 2010
5:41 pm
As a long time season ticket holder, I could not be more disappointed and embarassed with the scheduling philosophy of McCarthy.
Bringing in no name, noncompetitive teams will:
1. Increase the likelyhood of fewer sellouts as these teams will not sell many tickets and leftovers will not be popular with the general public. This season, single game tickets were available for almost every home game, even the Tech game, up to a week prior to the game.
2. Increase the likelyhood of many noshows on gameday. There are already large gaps of empty seats in the student section and other areas of the stadium, even for the Tech game.
3. Fewer fans coming to Athens will hurt business in Athens on gameday.
4. Wins against these types of teams will not enhance UGA within the BCS standings.
This season, I could not GIVE away my tickets to the Idaho State game and sold my opening game tickets for $20.00 each.
I will not sit in the heat and humidity of September to watch no name, non competitive teams earn a paycheck from UGA.
The Muslim Hammer
November 30th, 2010
5:43 pm
Drop Oregon pick up teams like this? What an embarrassment. I’m dropping my season tickets. These games aren’t worth it.
Paul in RDU
November 30th, 2010
5:43 pm
There is no surpise with this announcement. This is exactly what McGarity said he was going to do – eliminate all OOC road games apart from the every 2 years trip to Atlanta. Now UGA has 7 on campus games every year (as I understand it, UGA’s “home game” with UF is in the same year as the home game against GT). It is an excellent business decision.
UGA is never again going to schedule a traditional power OOC.
hey retards....
November 30th, 2010
5:45 pm
Just win the SEC and everything will fall in place–no need for high profile OOC opponents. UF did it twice in 3 yrs. Just win and stop crying about opponents. How did that Colorado thing work out this year? Geesh, get a clue people.
The Muslim Hammer
November 30th, 2010
5:52 pm
Yeah, b/c UGA has been winning a ton of titles by scheduling patsies in the past. Will you Dawg fans ever get it? YOU ARE NOT GOING TO WIN A NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP! Might as well bring Michigan to Athens.
Berzerk8dawg
November 30th, 2010
6:09 pm
Good job McGarity
blazerdawg
November 30th, 2010
6:10 pm
Boise State, Clemson, GA Tech, and then Florida, Auburn and TN, plus two SEC West opponents not enough for y’all?
Murray matches a Shockley record; Richt vs. O’Leary in Liberty Bowl? | UGA sports blog
November 30th, 2010
6:12 pm
[...] UGA adds Florida Atlantic to 2012 football schedule — at cost of $1 million. [...]
collegeballfan
November 30th, 2010
6:20 pm
Looks like UGA is setting up 2012 to be a 12 & 0 season. The four non conference games are all gimme’s and all they have to do is run the conference games.
Ben Thinken
November 30th, 2010
6:43 pm
Two things have brought about scheduling sure wins and sure losses.
First, the BCS is based on wins – no matter who the wins come from. Second, college football is no longer a sports based operation. It is a big business operation. Big teams need the wins to qualify for BCS controlled bowls and the lesser teams need the money they receive for playing the big teams. It all boils down to economics.
Tim Tucker
November 30th, 2010
6:53 pm
Bulldawg Richie: The Chick-fil-A Game agreed to pay $600,000 to Louisville to buy out the Georgia contract.
Un-freakin-believable
November 30th, 2010
6:55 pm
Florida Atlantic, Buffalo, and Georgia Southern? Was the Indiana Girls School for the Blind all booked up? Even Louisiana Lafayette thinks this is weak.
jasont13
November 30th, 2010
6:55 pm
You can tell be most of the posts on here that many of you are clueless when it comes to college football. The tough OOC games are being phased out. To the person who mentioned paying 600K in order to play Boise State. ESPN is picking up that tab. Most schools usually play 8 home games and 3 Non AQ teams. Go look at future schedules.
trey
November 30th, 2010
6:59 pm
Sometimes you have to pay to get weaklings to come into your stadium. Sometimes you don’t have to pay weaklings to come to your stadium because they will happily come to bow at our feet — like the yellow maggots, for instance. They will come to our stadium to get whipped for free.
So the Yellow Fuzzy Maggots have KANSAS (lmao) on their schedule again for 2011. Mebbe you girls should remove them since they whipped your team this year.
Middle Tn too? Say it ain’t so. What a might powerful team there!
Don’t forget Jacksonville St. They probably want to come play in your yard too.
((42-34))
Who’s your daddy maggots? LMAO
jasont13
November 30th, 2010
6:59 pm
Un-freakin-believable who is your team? I gurantee they are scheduled to play the sisters of the poor as well.
dawggone
November 30th, 2010
7:05 pm
UGA is doing what everyone has been saying about Boise St ..not playing enough tough teams. This will not put us higher in the polls. Easy wins over easy teams don’t prove anything. Just makes UGA look bad.
If it makes you happy so be it. But as for this dawg fan I’d rather beat the best!
O-me
November 30th, 2010
7:07 pm
Carrollton dawg = 30 IQ
TechRedNeck
November 30th, 2010
7:20 pm
Sanford drive, you’re an idiot for living on Sanford drive. Another weak little team for the mighty dawgs to whip up on. So all the UGA braggarts can talk about how great they are and then play the hypocrite when some other program does the same thing.
Barkin'Dog
November 30th, 2010
7:31 pm
Tim Tucker November 30th, 2010 6:53 pm
Bulldawg Richie: The Chick-fil-A Game agreed to pay $600,000 to Louisville to buy out the Georgia contract.
Tim… I don’t mean to question you, but I believe I read that the payoff to Louisville came from UGA’s take at the Chick-fil-A. UGA was to get more than Boise St., but they are getting $600K less (due to the buy out). I’d like to know for sure, so please check that out with the bowl people.
As for scheduling, this is the way it is being done all over the country. Ohio State, right on down. 3-4 pansies are being scheduled to make up for the grueling games in the conferences. Win your conference (and the easy games), and you’ll be in consideration for the title game. Period.
bob
November 30th, 2010
7:48 pm
Buffalo, Ga South. Fla Atlantic & Ga Tech. If we play 4 division 2 schools, how do we become Bowl eligible?
BBBieUgaVIII
November 30th, 2010
7:54 pm
Boy I hope UGA can get it’s moneies worth on this game. If the dawgs still have a crappy season this will be a huge waste of money. I would hate to be a season ticket holder having to pay the donation and ticket price for joke games like this. The SEC is a power in their own mind but not in the OOC games it choses.
BBBieUgaVIII
November 30th, 2010
8:00 pm
BOB you are so funny. GT, Bullalo & Fla Atlantic are FBS teams. Ga Southern is your only FCS team. Damn, you are stupid to be a College football fan.
wildbill
November 30th, 2010
8:14 pm
What in heck is going on in Athens, paying a mil for a pansy game? Next thing we know, UGA will be playing high school teams. After Boise State kicks us from pillar to post, we will probably play Meadowcreek High School and get beat!
DawgPile
November 30th, 2010
8:15 pm
What are they talking about? That is a very difficult non-conference schedule. I don’t see any other school putting an NFL team on their schedule!
DougSearch
November 30th, 2010
8:16 pm
It’s cheaper than a Michelle or Barack vacation.
just a fan
November 30th, 2010
8:32 pm
lol DougSearch lmao
Snellville Jacket
November 30th, 2010
8:34 pm
I hate to see any team – including my Jackets – schedule these pansies. As a season ticket holder, I can guarantee you that I had rather see Tech play some tough OOC opponents than Middle Tennessee or South Carolina State. I’m sure many of my Dawg counterparts feel the same way about scheduling Florida Atlantic. When I was at Tech, we played UGA, Tennessee, and Auburn every year. Did we lose some games? Sure, but I’d rather lose to a quality opponent than get a cheap win against a nobody!
just a fan
November 30th, 2010
8:35 pm
As a season ticket holder I am not thrilled with all the lower tier teams we are playing for but as someone said earlier if we get to rest our starters a little more during the season and they stay fresher for the big games and we play the younger guys and build depth then I am all for it also the main goal is to win your conference games we do that and we are playing in a BCS game or MNC game that is what counts not a home and home with Louisville or Oregon but i was going to make the trip to Autzen
Delbert D.
November 30th, 2010
8:50 pm
What was the deal with Idaho St., $300 thousand? Why not just bring them back again?, Heck put them on the schedule every year and make them a traditional home-alone rival.
SEC whiner
November 30th, 2010
9:08 pm
$1 million the going rate – not hardly.
This sounds pretty desperate to me. After Colorado and the close call at home against a QB-less insect bunch – seem like troubled times may be ahead in Athens.
jasont13
November 30th, 2010
9:14 pm
SEC Whiner, what are you talking about? Alabama will be paying North Texas close to 1.2 million to travel to Tuscaloosa. The going rate for a lot of the schools is close to 750k and higher. Do you know what UGA paid Boise State in 2005? 800K
Flying Tigers
November 30th, 2010
9:16 pm
Man that is sure going to be a great schedule for season ticket holders. Hell, why not just cancel the damn game, give them a million bucks and put up the W. This is what college athletics has come too, lets not compete lets just buy wins. Hell UGA should have patsies to play in Vandy, Kentucky and one of the Mississippi schools every year, then one out of conference patsy, and then GT. Hell can’t they compete against the others are do you still have to “buy” wins? I understand the need for 2 or 3 patsies per year, but this is ridiculus.
Hobnailbooty
November 30th, 2010
9:24 pm
Man I hate the BCS because as a season ticket holder this is crap. I would rather play 12 Auburns and be 8-4 than play the schedule with 3 patsies and be 11-1 or 12-0. U still pay the same for each ticket but as long as other schools schedule 3 patsies I guess we have to as well. What BS minus the C.
kreedham
November 30th, 2010
9:30 pm
Now that Georgia State has a team and Georgia Southern is well established both Tech and Georgia should play them. Have Tech play Georgia Southern while Georgia plays Georgia State and the next year switch.
Common Sense
November 30th, 2010
9:31 pm
You people bitch about the Boise game (too hard – risky) and then bitch about this one (too easy – too rich).
Common sense says McGarity is doing his damn job (and not gettin’ arrested while doing it).
Common Sense is right – I always am.
Common Sense
November 30th, 2010
9:35 pm
All you season ticket holders who are whining about this and that need to shut up.
YOUR A.D. IS DOING HIS FREAKIN JOB
SHUT UP, TAKE YOUR TAX DEDUCTION FOR THE GENERAL FUND CONTRIBUTION, AND SHOW UP FOR THE GAMES.
spider
November 30th, 2010
9:35 pm
FAU, BUFFALO, AND GA TECH ALL IN ONE SEASON, TALK ABOUT A CAKE WALK
SEC whiner
November 30th, 2010
9:40 pm
“Common sense says McGarity is doing his damn job (and not gettin’ arrested while doing it). ”
Well at least someone in Athens isn’t getting arrested!
JMar
November 30th, 2010
9:45 pm
It’s a shame there are so many morons commenting. To those complaining that the Dawgs have a cakewalk schedule, you’re morons because the only reason they have to pay Florida Atlantic is because they signed up to play Boise State. To those complaining that they should have given the money to Georgia State, well Georgia State is not an FBS school and they already have an FCS school on the schedule, so not only would they be playing a worse team, but it wouldn’t even count towards bowl eligibility. To those complaining that they should have found a better school to fill the gap in their schedule, did you notice that 99% of football games for 2012 are already scheduled? You can’t just go out and get another good team because those good teams already have games to play. And if you didn’t notice from the article above, they would have to pay hundreds of thousands to a million dollars to get out of those games.
Notso Fast
November 30th, 2010
9:59 pm
The Dawg fans have it made. When the AD signs team that guarantees a victory but is embarrassing even to Dawg fans, they just say that whats Florida does. When he signs a great game to start the season, then he is a Ga grad. With his “dream team” and schedule, Coach R better win. Dream teams still need great coaching to win.
Carter Burger
November 30th, 2010
10:08 pm
You have got to be kidding me? The Dawgs replaced Louisville with FAU? This is the best they could do? This is the new direction McGarity wants to lead the program in? Who’s next? Cumberland College? Northern Kentucky University? I hear Morehead State may have an open date in 2013. Sheese.
Chicago Dawg
November 30th, 2010
10:09 pm
No one will be worried about the schedule if it lands UGA in the BCS title game. They still play an SEC schedule which is the toughest in the nation. Great way to see the stars of tomorrow with the younger guys getting to play and the 2nd teamer seniors getting an opportunity to play. It really doesn’t matter in the end as long as you hit your goals and are playing an SEC schedule. Go DAWGS!
Un-freakin-believable
November 30th, 2010
10:09 pm
jasont13- My team is the Sisters of the Poor. At least they know thy’re not good, and don’t need to buy wins. Next question tough guy?
Un-freakin-believable
November 30th, 2010
10:27 pm
Carter Burger- Don’t orget the chihuauas announced they would be playing Charleston Southern in either 2011 or 2013.
Smart
November 30th, 2010
10:35 pm
Good move by Greg. That L’ville road game was sandwiched between games @ Carolina and @ Bama. Nice to squeeze in a home game against a lesser opponent in between two huge SEC games.
NorthGaDawg
November 30th, 2010
10:42 pm
If I remember correctly, while Florida was winning those Nat. Championships, most of their schedules were games like this. So lighten up!!
McLovin
November 30th, 2010
10:59 pm
Common Sense—right on!!! At least someone on here gets it. No wonder everyone laughs at UGA’s fanbase. I now have to agree that we have some of the dumbest fans around. This is how UF did it when McGaruty was there and they won. That is the difference, they WON. All we have to do is win the conference and we are in. Where have you people been? Win the SEC and the BCS comes to us. Thanks, Common Sense for putting it out there in such a simple way–Maybe some of these so called Dawg Fans will understand it. Oh, by the way, playing tough OOC games didn’t work, so what are you all bitchin’ about. Forfeit your season tickets and I’ll pick them up. Stay at home, we don’t want your kind pulling for the DAWGS anyway!!!