UGA’s McGarity unsure about 2012 schedule but says SEC will stick with 8 games
ATHENS – When asked about Georgia’s future schedules in the wake of SEC expansion, Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity deferred Monday to that well-known football scheduling expert of “Hogan’s Heroes” fame.
“What was it that Sgt. Schultz used to say? ‘I know nothing,” McGarity said in a fake German accent.
Lame jokes aside, McGarity was telling the truth. He said the SEC’s 12 current ADs met two weeks ago to discuss future schedules, but that all those scenarios involved a 13-team league. After Sunday’s news that Missouri has officially joined the league, the SEC will be a 14-team conference starting next season. Texas A&M agreed in September to join the SEC.
“I really don’t know anything,” McGarity said Monday. “Two weeks ago all we saw were several different variations of a 13-team schedule, but we haven’t seen anything regarding 14 teams. The only thing we know is that Missouri is in the East. I guess that means that we play Missouri next year. But who knows where and who knows who our Western opponents will be? That’s what you just don’t know, because you can’t assume anything.”
McGarity said one thing about which he is sure is they won’t be expanding from eight to nine conference games. South Carolina President Harris Pastides was quoted earlier Monday saying that would be the case.
“No, no, no, I don’t know where that came from,” McGarity said. “That was in error. That has never been discussed. The model is an eight-game conference schedule. I do know that.”
One scenario floated on Monday was that Georgia, which was slated to pick up Alabama next season in Tuscaloosa, would get the Tigers in Columbia instead.
“Not necessarily so,” McGarity said. “We’ll have to play everybody in the East, so there’s six games there, then you play two Western opponents. One of those will have to be Auburn, we hope, just like Alabama hopes theirs will be Tennessee. So who knows?
“We just haven’t had any discussion yet on what our schedule will look like next year. But we have to know by the end of the month. We have to for logistical purposes.”
McGarity said preliminary word out of Birmingham is that they will meet again in two weeks to finalize future schedules. That day won’t come soon enough for him.
“We have to get moving on 2012,” McGarity said. “We’ve got printed materials, we’ve got season-ticket orders, hotels to reserve, we’ve got to move pretty quickly here. But that’s just part of the challenges that occur when you go through expansion this quickly.”
– Chip Towers
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212 comments Add your comment
WestOfAthens
November 7th, 2011
7:10 pm
Move AU and UA to the East, makes perfect sense, agree w/ya Ernesto
Of course, there a lot of bold decisions awaiting this group of SEC ADs
Wait and see attitude at the moment
HBTD
prpl dawg
November 7th, 2011
7:16 pm
TRULY PATHETIC. THE SEC HAS PROSTITUTED ITSELF, PROBABLY AT THE INSISTENCE OF ESPN.
JUST LIKE MAJOR LEAGUE SPORTS, THE FANS DO NOT MATTER. TRADITION DOES NOT MATTER. ONLY THE GODS MONEY AND POWER MATTER. MO IS EAST- OF CALIFORNIA.
ALABAMA AND AUBURN PROBABLY GOT THEIR WAY WITH THIS.
COLLEGE PRESIDENTS HAVE SPEWED THEIR HIGH LEVEL BS ABOUT GREAT ACADEMICS, WHEN WE ALL KNOW THEY DO NOT CARE. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE NCAA? START WITH THE LEADERSHIP- THE COLLEGE PRESIDENTS AMONG THEM. NOTHING MORE THAN EDUCATED, ARROGANT POWER-SEEKING POLITICIANS.
bamadawg
November 7th, 2011
7:18 pm
Don’t you know LSU wants Bama and Auburn out of the west. Hell, they would be in the SECCG every year.
Whosnext95
November 7th, 2011
7:21 pm
Ok people, get out your pen, paper and or calculators if you need to. There are SIX teams in the East and SIX teams in the West right now. If you move Auburn and Alabama to the East, that now means there are EIGHT in the East and FOUR in the West. Then if you add Mizzu and A&M to the West, you now have SIX again in the West. This math don’t equal people!!! I know this is a football blog, but come on, this is pretty simple stuff.
bamadawg
November 7th, 2011
7:21 pm
prpl dawg, you are so dead on the money. The conference WAS as good as you ask for!!
mcdaviddawg
November 7th, 2011
7:26 pm
This needs to be a win for the fans, get rid of one of the high school games (like we just played) amd schedule one more conference game. Unfortunately Magarity , like Richt, likes to play high schools, but as a paying fan I’m getting very sick of them.
jp
November 7th, 2011
7:37 pm
tampa gator if we wanted cup cakes we would just hope to play the gators twice . we have a much better chance of beating lsu than bama or florida bc we have not already been beaten like fla and bama .demps .I agree a healthy demps and gator team would probably get to zero yards rushing instead of -20
Big Wally
November 7th, 2011
7:42 pm
Will have to eventually go to 9 conf. games. PAC 12 already does it now. That still leaves room for 2 patsy non conference games on the schedule – three if you count Tech.
lets be men
November 7th, 2011
7:46 pm
move alabama /auburn east, 10 game SEC schedule with 2 outside conference gms. that lets you get a rival and a preseason cupcake.
yadddaaaa
November 7th, 2011
8:00 pm
mutt fans want to call other sec teams schedules cup cakes.
Please god
November 7th, 2011
8:01 pm
I don’t want to face Bama or LSU in the same year.
Pulpwud Smiff
November 7th, 2011
8:16 pm
A man went to his doctor and said, “Doc, I’ve always admired the Polish people, and I would give anything to be a Polack.”
The doctor replies, “Well, you’re in luck. They’ve just developed a surgical procedure that will turn anyone into a Polack. A surgeon removes 99% of your brain, and then you’re just like a Polack.”
“That sounds great, the man said. Let’s do it!”
A few days later, in the operating room, the surgeon asks the man if he’s absolutely certain he wants the surgery. “I sure am,” the man says. “Let’s get on with it.”
A couple of hours later, the surgeon has finished removing 99% of the man’s brain. Then, the unthinkable happened. The surgeon sneezed and accidentally removed the 1% of the brain that was left.
In the recovery room, the surgeon said, “Sir, I am so sorry. Instead of removing 99% of your brain, I accidentally removed 100%. this has never happened before, so we have no idea what someone without a brain will be like.”
The man looked up at the surgeon with glazed eyes, and with slurred speech said…
“HOW ‘BOUT THEM DAWGS!”
Class of 93
November 7th, 2011
8:47 pm
Change the east west rotation games to one rotating game plus the traditional cross division rivalry. Keep all existing cross divisional rivalries the same and let Texas AM and Mizzo play every year. By the way putting Mizzo in the east stinks for us GA fans who love going to away games.
Rocky
November 7th, 2011
8:53 pm
And he is going to be offering Richt a 5 year deal in a couple of weeks as well to solidify recruiting. Richt is being given the chance over the next 3 years to rebuild this program. Amazingly we have a shot at being in the top 10 by the end of the bowl season this year.
AltamahaDawg
November 7th, 2011
9:00 pm
Rocky, with the left hook. That has got to sting.
Nick
November 7th, 2011
9:02 pm
How does moving Auburn over to the east and putting TA&M and Missu in the the west. That will give us 7 in each division and makes since where the schools are located. It also keeps strong teams in each division.
RawDawg
November 7th, 2011
9:02 pm
Ugh.. I am officially not a fan of expansion. So UGA will play the 6 teams in the east, Auburn, and 1 other team from the west each year? UGA would only play Bama, LSU, and Arkansas once every 5 or six years? Talk about boring scheduling. Is it too late to kick TAM and Mizzou out?
my own two cents
November 7th, 2011
9:11 pm
The AU- UGA series wont drop, CBS make too much money off it.
richmondDawg
November 7th, 2011
9:20 pm
My understanding is that EVERY home and home that is supposed to start next year will be delayed to work in the two new guys..only way they get a full SEC slate next year..
Barf
November 7th, 2011
9:25 pm
Drop Auburn now! They were, are and always will be the biggest cheaters in college football. Maybe if they did’nt play UGA every year they might not be able to recruit this state. Go to hell Auburn!
SmyrnaBob
November 7th, 2011
9:25 pm
AJC bans honest bloggers
murfdawg
November 7th, 2011
9:26 pm
I think UGA has done pretty well against the SECWest in the last few years. We’ve beaten Bama 3 out of the last 4, won 4 out of 5 against AU, and by my count beat LSU 4 straight times. If we hadn’t played fl the last five years, we would be really damn good.Maybe we should move to the West!!!
lodger16x
November 7th, 2011
9:41 pm
There’s an easy way to keep the 8-game schedule AND solve the problem of playing most other-division teams only once every 6 years. It would require that all teams skip one team in their division each year. So there would be 6 division games, and 3 non-division games ( one of those with the cross-rival). This is not any more unfair than the current rotation system. In this system, the longest time between an SEC team visiting another would be reduced from 12 years to 6.
Seriously?
November 7th, 2011
9:44 pm
Missouri is now an SEC member? They can’t and haven’t won anything in 50 years, are currently 4-5 in the Big XII. This was the ‘best’ 14th team we could find??
roswelldawg
November 7th, 2011
10:02 pm
seriously… For real, right? I thought Slive said he could have 16 teams in about 30 minutes. I didn’t realize he was talking about 2nd rate teams. I guess Conference USA could have 16 teams in 30 minutes if they took Georgia State and UTC.
Dshep
November 7th, 2011
10:15 pm
Move Auburn and Alabama to the East? Why don’t you just hand LSU a free trip to Atlanta every year? Just plain stupid!
historydawg
November 7th, 2011
10:18 pm
It is unfortunate how things change when conferences expand. UGA had a long-standing annual rivalry with Ole Miss that is now seemingly forgotten and rarely played Tenn.
Paul in NH
November 7th, 2011
10:30 pm
If the Big XII can manage 9 conference games and the PAC 12 can manage 9 conference games plus a championship game, then I am pretty sure that the SEC can manage 9 conference games. Go to 6 in your division, 1 permanent opponent in the other division (UGA-Auburn, ALA-Tenn, etc) and 2 other games rotating against the other division. You’ll end up playing 5 home 4 away one year followed by 4 home 5 away the next, but you’ll get a true champion.
Red Stick
November 7th, 2011
10:34 pm
murfdawg
November 7th, 2011
9:26 pm
“We’ve beaten Bama 3 out of the last 4, won 4 out of 5 against AU, and by my count beat LSU 4 straight times.”
You need to do your research before you spout off. LSU beat UGA twice in 2003. UGA won in 2004, 2005 and in 2008. LSU won in 2009. By my math that’s a 3-3 split since 2000.
sports
November 7th, 2011
10:40 pm
why doesn’t Georgia drop the game with the “hood” on North Avenue.
BehindEnemyLines
November 7th, 2011
11:01 pm
The Southeastern Conference just gave membership to Missouri. Anyone expecting logic, rhyme or reason to be a part of the scheduling process is either naive or whistling past the graveyard.
Red Stick
November 7th, 2011
11:07 pm
Paul in NH, the coaches wouldn’t like it but I would be glad to see a 9 game schedule with a 14 team SEC.
Play your 6 division opponents and have 1 permanent school and rotate the other 2 games among the other opposite 6 division teams. That preserves the current arrangement.
If Missouri is in the east, they could play A&M every year.
Paul in NH
November 7th, 2011
11:16 pm
Jumbeaux aka Red Stick
You and I are on the same page when it comes to the SEC schedule.
BTW – I saw your comment to murfdawg. I thought you knew UGA won the last game against LSU but the refs took it away with the penalty against AJ?
Hoops Dawg
November 7th, 2011
11:32 pm
Why in the world would both Alabama and Auburn have to move to the east. Auburn (which is already east of Vandy) could move and realignment is over (with A7M and Missouri both going to the West). The only problem with this scenario is that it would fail to preserve AL-TN game every year (under the assumption, of course, that the Iron bowl would continue to be played each year).
mutiger1957
November 7th, 2011
11:36 pm
Hello SEC Nation – reading comments mostly on the future schedule and rivalries. Going to a 9 game conference schedule is going to make this conference even harder. It might keep Mizzou out of a bowl game this year. We have to win 2 of the next 3 to make it including playing Texas & Texas Tech.
BTW – if you think the comments in this post are emotional, the “KANSAS” City media is in an uproar right now about our leaving the Big Whatever. Good reading.
Shine
November 7th, 2011
11:44 pm
translation…we athens sheepdawgs want to play as few as possible in that SEC WEST. Them folks over there aint eat up with mediocrity like here in the SEC EAST.
Jeff
November 7th, 2011
11:49 pm
Folks, you can’t just “move” teams from 1 division to the other — the math doesn’t work!
If you move Auburn and Bama to the East, you’d have 8 teams — Auburn, Bama, Vandy, KY, Tenn, Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. The West would have 6 — Mizzou, Tex A&M, Ole Miss, Miss State, LSU and Arkansas.
If you transfer Vandy to the West, everything else would hold, but I don’t know if they would agree to it.
Personally, I don’t like any of this. The SEC appears to be expanding for the sake of expanding, without gaining any real value. A school like West Virginia, Florida State, Clemson, Virginia Tech, or even an East Carolina or Central Florida, might make a lot more sense, competitively and geographically. But adding Texas A&M just to get into Texas? Adding Missouri just for the Kansas City TV market? That makes ZERO sense. I’ve been to Kansas City — those people don’t give a squat about college football… they care about midwest sports, Big 12 basketball, Cardinals and Royals baseball, and other stuff… SEC sports are off their radar. Mizzou to the SEC won’t really change that.
I say the SEC should have found two powerhouse schools to add. Yeah, tougher schedules all around, but when you have ALL the major players (let’s say for argument’s sake they added Oklahoma and Florida State), then you get to call ALL the shots, and the SEC would have even more power than it already does. I would love to see that scenario, where the ONLY football that matters is played in the SEC. It’s almost that way as it is.
Adding Mizzou and A&M does nothing for me… other than screw up a pretty predictable schedule for SEC teams. College football is losing its traditions and, soon after, large segments of its fan base. You can’t base all your decisions on what markets to a bunch of Red-Bull-amped-up 24 year olds who like to show up at GameDay broadcasts… the MONEY for programs and networks and advertisers comes from the rich, deep-pocketed alumni who graduated 20 or 30 years ago. Let’s not ignore them so that we can sell a few more beers or t-shirts to some 19-year-old wanna-be’s.
Dawg stranded in Alabama
November 8th, 2011
12:09 am
Honestly, SEC expansion is SOOOOOO idiotic. The fans don’t want it, and I suspect that the coaches and ADs don’t want it either (unless you’re the AD at Texas A&M or Mizzou). The best option would be to keep the SEC at 12 teams, and for the Dawgs to renew their annual tilt with Clemson, which used to be a great rivalry. But money talks.
It only makes sense
November 8th, 2011
12:47 am
Why not move Alabama and Auburn to the East and send Vandy to the west? That preserves the rivalry games. (Make Tenn vs. Vandy the annual cross division game for each school)
mdawg
November 8th, 2011
12:48 am
richmonddawg. grow up…… us new generation dawg fans do not care about the so called traditions that you speak of… just like i will never go to a UGA/fla game until the game is played in athens….
previously UGA seldom played tennessee but now i like that rivalry. change is good. and i like Mizzou coming to the sec.
ive drove from atlanta to columbia mo and it only took me around 11 hours. how long does it take to drive to baton rouge?
missou does need to be in the west. they and ark would make a good rivalry and are very close by (2 hours i think).
and stop crying about tennessee not playing auburn like they used to… now they play UGA and we normally beat them.
7576DAWG
November 8th, 2011
1:32 am
Things sure do move slow in college football. In 5 to 10 years the SEC will expand to 16 teams. It will take that long for the other major conferences to catch up with the SEC. 16 team conferences will finally set up a 16 team playoff system for the true national championship. Can’t wait.
7576DAWG
November 8th, 2011
1:43 am
mdawg
I graduated from Georgia in 76 and have never been to Jacksonville. A few year ago someone wanted to give me 4 tickets to GA.-FLA. and I told them HELL NO . but I appreciate the offer. That game in Jacksonville was never about the game as much as it was for partying and playing golf. It deprives every business in Athens a wind fall of profit every other year and it deprives me the right to go to Gainesville and watch us beat them down there. I can’t stand how the city of Jacksonville and the TV media has bought Georgia and how we let them. I am 59 years old and will die before I will ever go to Jacksonville to see a game.
Jawja Math
November 8th, 2011
5:21 am
My I.Q. dropped after reading these posts regarding division realignment. Do they teach math at Jawja?
ole yeller
November 8th, 2011
6:17 am
It looks like to me it doesn’t matter who the dawgs play in the east or the west. They have recuited well and have the STUDS to back it up. That is the first time in a long time i can say that. I love the DAWGS and I love the SEC, best in the nation.
ole yeller
November 8th, 2011
6:33 am
It makes sense that Missouri go to the East. Hell they are closer to Ky, Tenn, and Vandy than some of the teams they play now in conference. Travel should play a part in the decision.
ole yeller
November 8th, 2011
6:40 am
AND lets face it, like it or not Missouri is considered a SOUTHERN state just like TEXAS going back over 200 years. I say welcome HOME Missouri and.Texas A&M.
Good Grief
November 8th, 2011
7:08 am
It seems that moving Auburn to the East would be easier logistically than adding Mizzou to the East. With Auburn in the East, and assuming Auburn retains Alabama as their permanent cross-division rival, then Tennessee and Georgia are the only teams requiring permanent opponents, and lo and behold the SEC just added two new teams. How convenient.
AltamahaDawg
November 8th, 2011
7:14 am
Proven fact that the game in Jax delivers more revenue to Georgia based hotels and businesses than the home and home series would. I also can’t understand why you would vote to deprive the University of Georgia the extra 1.2 millions dollars they receives per year extra by not having the games on campus. Not to mention the pricelsss exposure that game brings her.
Prediction
November 8th, 2011
7:22 am
I’m going to remember all of these Dawg fans whining about Mizzou not being “good enough” for the SEC when the Tigers beat down the Dawgs next year!
Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!
adawgfan
November 8th, 2011
7:24 am
I say move Auburn to the east. since they are now within the 7 easternmost teams. Why Missou? Florida, Georgia and USC will have to travel half way across the country to play an eastern opponent and vice versa for Missou. Just doesn’t make sense.