Archive for the ‘Multiple sports’ Category

THE TEN AT 10:

1. OK, you asked for it, so now you’ve got it. The “Ten@10″ has been resurrected here on The UGA Blog. I haven’t decided yet whether it will be a regular feature or, if so, when or how often it might run. But there’s a lot of stuff going on at Georgia right now, so it seemed a good time to blow off the dust and break it back out here. Let’s see how it goes. . . .

Lindsay Scott

2. I got to spend a little time with Georgia football legend Lindsay Scott over at the UGA Golf Course on Monday.  The star receiver from the Bulldogs’ 1980 national championship team was looking fit and in great spirits before teeing off in the “Celebrity Am” for the Stadion Classic tournament.

Scott has lived and worked in Valdosta pretty much ever since retiring from pro football. So, like anybody else living in “Winnersville,” he has kept up with high school football. So I asked him what he thought about the two players Georgia signed from down there, Malcolm Mitchell and Jay …

Continue reading Ten@10: Lindsay Scott weighs in on ‘Valdosta boys,’ A.J. Green, NFL lockout »

Bubba Watson, who won $1.1 million at the Zurich Classic in New Orleans on Sunday, warms up with Matthew Stafford on Monday before playing in a celebrity event for the Stadion Classic at UGA. (Photo from Stadion Classic)

Q&A WITH BUBBA WATSON

What a stroke of good fortune for the Stadion Classic at UGA golf tournament. For months, they had Bubba Watson lined up to be the honorary chairman of this year’s annual Nationwide Tour event at the UGA Golf Course. It just so happened Watson arrives as the hottest American golfer and a top 10 player in the world.

Watson, who played college golf at Georgia, hit a 7-iron 210 yards out of a fairway bunker to the reach the par-5 18th hole in two and two-putt for a victory over Webb Simpson in a sudden-death playoff at the Zurich Classic in New Orleans on Sunday. It was the second victory of the year for Watson and third in his last 19 tournaments over 11 months.

Less than 24 hours later Watson was in Athens to donate $50,000 of his Ryder …

Continue reading Bubba Watson back at UGA after second PGA victory of year »

A.J. Green, here with Cincinnati coach Marvin Lewis, was extremely well-received in Cincy. (Photo by Gary Landers/The Enquirer)

THE MONDAY MORNING REWIND

For the 12th time in the past 14 seasons, and fifth year in a row, the Southeastern Conference had the most players selected in the NFL draft. And, once again, Georgia was among the league’s leaders in producing professional football players.

The Bulldogs had six players taken during the three-day draft. That tied LSU for most in the conference this year. It marked the second time in three years that six Bulldogs were drafted.

UGA was also fourth overall in the nation, tied with Clemson, LSU and Iowa. North Carolina had the most players drafted with nine followed by Miami (8) and Nebraska (7).

The SEC had 38 players selected, including 10 in the first round. The Big Ten was second among the conferences with 36, followed by the ACC (34), Pac-10 (29), Big 12 and Big East (22), WAC (16), Mountain West (8), Conference USA (7), …

Continue reading Rewind: Bulldogs prevalent in NFL draft, baseball team keeps rolling »

Our Monday morning review of what you might have missed over the weekend in Bulldog Nation:

• Men’s tennis: The Bulldogs clinched at least a share of their 26th regular-season SEC championship –- and fourth in six years — by beating South Carolina 7-0 in Athens on Sunday. No. 7-ranked Georgia (19-3, 10-0 SEC) plays for the outright SEC championship against No. 4 Tennessee (19-3, 9-1 SEC) at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex. Said coach Manuel Diaz after the victory over the Gamecocks:

“Winning the SEC regular season title was the first goal on our list of things we wanted to achieve this year. We’ve assured ourselves of that first goal, and it’s always a very tough thing to do. You have to play a lot of great teams on the road, but our guys have gotten tougher in the difficult moments that define a competition. They’ve won a lot of close matches and deserve to be SEC champions.”

Palazzone

• Baseball: Georgia won its third consecutive SEC series by taking two …

Continue reading What you might have missed over the weekend, starting with an SEC title… »

A quick recap of a busy (and good) weekend in Bulldog Nation:

Craig Gullickson

• Baseball: Georgia swept a three-game series from No. 24 Mississippi State at Foley Field, winning 4-1 on Friday, 4-3 on Saturday and 4-1 on Sunday. The Dogs (14-14, 6-3 SEC) are on a five-game SEC winning streak. They got strong starting pitching all weekend. Friday: Alex Wood allowed one run on three hits and struck out eight in seven innings. Saturday: Michael Palazzone went 8 2/3 innings, allowing three runs (two earned) on six hits. Sunday: Craig Gullickson permitted one run on six hits in 5 2/3 innings. (Gullickson is the son of former major-league pitcher Bill Gullickson and the brother of UGA tennis player Chelsey Gullickson, the defending NCAA women’s singles champion.)

• Gymnastics: The Gym Dogs are headed back to the NCAA Championships after a one-year absence. They finished second (behind UCLA) in the NCAA Southeast Regional in Stegeman Coliseum on Saturday to earn a spot in the 12-team …

Continue reading What you might have missed over the weekend… »

A few notes to start the day:

Jones

• A former Georgia assistant coach is headed to the Final Four. Mike Jones, a member of Dennis Felton’s UGA staff for six seasons, is an assistant at Virginia Commonwealth, which will play Butler in a wildly improbable national semifinal on Saturday. Jones was let go by Georgia, along with the rest of Felton’s assistants, when Mark Fox was hired in April 2009. Jones landed a position a couple of months later on the staff of then-new VCU coach Shaka Smart. Jones is a 17-year veteran coach who also has worked at  West Virginia, Richmond, Furman and Howard.

• It won’t go down in the annals of famously effective motivational speeches, given the Georgia women’s basketball team’s 79-38 loss to Texas A&M in an NCAA tournament Sweet 16 game on Sunday. But if you want to listen, here’s a link at georgiadogs.com to Herschel Walker’s pregame speech to the Lady Bulldogs.

• After winning two of three games last weekend over No. 9 LSU, Georgia’s baseball …

Continue reading Former UGA assistant reaches Final Four with VCU »

It was a busy weekend in Bulldog Nation. So let’s start the week with a recap:

Wendy Trott

• The UGA women’s swimming and diving team finished second in the NCAA Championships in Austin, Texas. The Lady Bulldogs’ 394.5 points trailed only California’s 424. Georgia’s Wendy Trott won the 1,650 freestyle for the third consecutive season, and the 400 freestyle relay team of Morgan Scroggy, Megan Romano, Melanie Margalis and Allison Schmitt placed first with an American-record time.

• The women’s basketball team, in the NCAA tournament for the 17th consecutive year, defeated Middle Tennessee State 56-41 in an opening-round game Sunday night at Auburn. Jasmine James scored 18 points, and Porsha Phillips had 10 points and 14 rebounds. The Lady Bulldogs advance to a round-of-32 matchup against Florida State on Tuesday night.

• The gymnastics team finished third at the SEC Championships, behind winner Alabama and runnerup Florida. Georgia senior Cassidy McComb won the SEC all-around …

Continue reading What you might have missed over the weekend… »

Emptying the notebook to start the weekend:

Hartley

• You remember Todd Hartley, one of the two UGA football graduate assistants who famously filled in as interim defensive coaches for the 2009 Independence Bowl after Mark Richt fired three coaches. Marshall University officially named Hartley to its coaching staff on Friday. He’ll coach safeties. The Georgia staff has known for several weeks that Marshall was hiring Hartley, who returned to G.A. duties at UGA after Richt hired new defensive coaches. Hartley, a Gray, Ga., native, graduated from UGA in 2008;   he and his wife have a four-month-old son.

• Published heights and weights of athletes are not always reliable, but Georgia’s spring football roster, released this week, shows some substantial weight gains from the Liberty Bowl roster. Changes in Georgia’s strength and conditioning program took effect after the bowl. Four linemen are showing gains of 20-plus pounds: defensive lineman Kwame Geathers (from 325 to 350) and …

Continue reading A new job for UGA grad assistant who coached in bowl (and other notes) »

ATHENS – Good morning. It’s going to be another busy day on the Bulldogs beat.

• The UGA Athletic Association board of directors will hold its regular quarterly meeting on campus. The agenda appears pretty light, although the board will hear, as usual, from UGA President Michael Adams, athletic director Greg McGarity, faculty athletics representative David Shipley and treasurer Tim Burgess.  Other items on the agenda include “renovation” of the Sanford Stadium video board and distribution of student football tickets. Also expect discussion of this year’s “Hartman Fund” contributions, which you can read about here, and the ticket price for the Georgia-Florida football game. The Florida athletic board tentatively approved a $10 price increase at its Dec. 15 meeting, pending a decision by UGA. UPDATE: McGarity said today that any increase would not take effect until the 2012 game. The board meeting starts at 1:30 p.m.; check back to ajc.com for updates.

• The dedication ceremony …

Continue reading Today’s fare: Athletic Board meeting, Butts-Mehre dedication and hoops »

A few notes to start the week:

• The SEC East men’s basketball standings are worth a glance today. Among the teams behind Georgia in the division: Kentucky and Tennessee.

Florida 9-2

Georgia 6-4

Vanderbilt 6-4

Kentucky 5-5

Tennessee 5-5

South Carolina 4-6

Each has been a struggle, but Georgia has won three consecutive SEC games — at Arkansas on a last-second free throw, at home over Auburn in overtime and at South Carolina in that inexplicable game Saturday in which Georgia allowed nine points in the first half and 47 in the second half and saw a 23-point lead dwindle to two in the course of 10 minutes before winning by four.

The Bulldogs, though, are 0-3 against the next three teams on their schedule –- Vanderbilt in Athens on Wednesday night, then Tennessee on the road Saturday and Florida on the road Feb. 24.

The Vanderbilt game will be a battle for sole possession of second place in the East. The Commodores are coming off a home victory over Kentucky and are No. 15 in the …

Continue reading From the notebook: a move up in the East … and a coach’s first loss to Tech »

A few quick notes to start the day:

• Herschel Walker became the latest to chime in on Georgia’s recruiting class. “How about that Dawgs ‘Dream Team’ Coach Mark Richt recruited?” Walker posted Thursday evening on Twitter. “We finally kept our Georgia boys at home. Nice job Coach.” Walker previously had expressed concerns about elite prospects leaving the state.

• Georgia basketball signee Kentavious Caldwell-Pope received a high honor Thursday: He was chosen as a McDonald’s All-American. The shooting guard from Greenville (Ga.) will be one of 24 players in the prestigious all-star game March 30 at Chicago’s United Center.  According to the game’s website, 10 previous McDonald’s All-Americans went on to play for UGA: Terry Fair (a 1979 selection), Dominique Wilkins (1979), James Banks (1980), Vern Fleming (1980), Donald Hartry (1982), Melvin Howard (1983), Litterial Green (1988), Shaun Golden (1989), Carlos Strong (1992) and Damien Wilkins (1999).

• Mark Fox will coach against …

Continue reading Herschel Walker chimes in on the Dogs’ ‘Dream Team,’ and other notes »

A few quick notes this morning . . .

• There’s some chatter that Will Friend could become Georgia’s next offensive line coach, although no word — nor indication of imminent word — from UGA. Just in case, here’s a bit of background on Friend:

As an offensive guard at Alabama in the 1990s, he was a four-year starter and a two-time All-SEC player. He was named to Alabama’s Team of the Decade. He has been UAB’s offensive line coach for the past four years and before that was offensive line coach at Gardner-Webb for two years. UAB’s head coach is Neil Callaway, a former offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at Georgia. In fact, Friend helped Callaway with Georgia’s offensive line for two years as a graduate assistant.

• Georgia ranks No. 18 in the second edition of ESPN.com’s Mark Schlabach’s 2011 Way-Too-Early Preseason Top 25, posted today. Interesting teams on both sides of the Bulldogs in the rankings: No. 17 Auburn and No. 19 Texas. Florida is No. 20. No. 1? …

Continue reading A ‘Friend’ as OL coach? Dogs No. 18? »

In the spirit of the season — Signing Day is Wednesday, you might have heard — ESPNU and ESPN The Magazine have ranked the 20 best recruiters in college sports.

There’s a University of Georgia coach on the list, and you might guess the UGA rep would be a football coach, given that program’s recent roll on the recruiting trail.

But guess again.

Georgia gymnastics coach Jay Clark is the ninth best recruiter in all of college sports, according to the rankings compiled by a panel of three dozen “experts.” He is the only gymnastics coach -– and the only coach from a Georgia school –- on the list.

Clark is in his second season as the Gym Dogs’ head coach and was a long-time assistant and lead recruiter under former coach Suzanne Yoculan.

Here’s the ESPNU/ESPN The Magazine list of college sports’ top 20 recruiters:

1. Pat Henry, Texas A&M men’s and women’s cross-country/indoor and outdoor track

2. Anson Dorrance, North Carolina women’s soccer

3. Ed Orgeron, USC football assistant

4. …

Continue reading Who is UGA’s top recruiter? Not who you might guess… »

Georgia has promoted director of football operations Josh Brooks to assistant athletic director of internal operations.

In his new job, Brooks, 30, will assume many of the duties previously handled by Arthur Johnson, who recently resigned as associate athletic director/internal operations to take a job at Texas.

Brooks just completed his first year as football operations director after serving two years as the assistant director.

To replace Brooks as director of football operations, Georgia coach Mark Richt promoted Brad Hutcherson, who had been a graduate assistant.

Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity also amended the titles of a number of athletics department officials, although their duties remain largely the same as before.

Title changes include: Carla Williams from senior associate athletic director/senior women’s sports administrator to executive associate athletic director; Claude Felton from associate AD/sports communications to senior associate AD; Glada Horvat …

Continue reading Staff changes at UGA »

ATHENS – Georgia’s football team ranked second in the SEC, behind Vanderbilt, in Graduation Success Rate (GSR) statistics released today by the NCAA.

Georgia had a 68-percent graduation rate in football for the freshmen classes and transfer students of 2000 through 2003, according to the figures released today.

The NCAA releases the figures annually for rolling four-year survey periods. Georgia’s football graduation rate was up from 57 percent in last year’s figures.

In all sports, Georgia athletes posted a 77-percent graduation rate in the figures released today, up from 75 percent a year ago. UGA said this year’s figures are the Bulldogs’ highest since the GSR was implemented in 2005, with eight teams (football, men’s basketball, men’s golf, women’s cross-country/track, women’s golf, soccer, softball and women’s swimming/diving) improving from a year ago and three other teams (men’s swimming/diving, gymnastics and women’s tennis) maintaining their perfect 100-percent …

Continue reading Georgia football ranks No. 2 in SEC behind Vanderbilt — in graduation rate »

Debbie Ferguson and Eric Zeier, record-setters on Georgia’s track and football teams in the 1990s, will be inducted next month into UGA’s Circle of Honor, which is the school’s highest tribute for former athletes and coaches.

Ferguson, a sprinter, won four individual national titles during her Georgia career and was the SEC athlete of the year in women’s track and field in 1998 and ‘99. She competed in four Olympics for the Bahamas, winning a gold medal as a member of a 400-meter relay team in 2000.

Zeier, Georgia’s quarterback from 1991-94, set a long list of school and SEC records. He still holds a number of UGA records, including most passing yards in a season (3,525 in 1993). Zeier’s career totals of 11,153 passing yards and 67 touchdown passes are second in UGA annals only to David Greene’s totals (11,528 yards and 72 TDs).

Ferguson and Zeier will be inducted into the Circle of Honor at a banquet on Sept. 17 and will be recognized at the Georgia-Arkansas football game …

Continue reading UGA will induct Zeier, Ferguson into Circle of Honor »

If you missed it, here’s my story from late yesterday on 49 people applying for the UGA athletic director job, including, to name a few, Florida executive associate AD Greg McGarity, long-time NFL exec Jim Steeg and Troy athletic director (and former UGA football player and assistant coach) Steve Dennis.

Now, digging deeper into almost 500 pages of correspondence between UGA and the AD applicants,  obtained by the AJC under the Open Records Act, here’s more:

• Among the applicants: Mark Parkman, who was a student assistant in the sports information department while attending UGA in the 1980s and has gone on to a varied career in sports business. He now is an executive with the International Olympic Committee’s broadcasting subsidiary. He lives in Atlanta.

• And another: Jay Rossello, who is director of legal affairs and assistant general counsel for the NCAA. In a cover letter sent with his resume, Rossello notes that he spent several summers of his youth in Athens “training …

Continue reading More candidates for Georgia’s AD job, and a strong endorsement for McGarity »

(Updated 6:50 p.m. )

The NCAA has informed the University of Georgia that investigators will interview one UGA student-athlete “to determine his knowledge of or involvement in, directly or indirectly, any violations of NCAA legislation,” according to a document obtained Monday by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The athlete’s name was redacted before the document -– a copy of an e-mail from the NCAA to UGA -– was turned over to the AJC in response to an open-records request.

The e-mail was sent by NCAA Assistant Director of Agent, Gambling and Amateurism Activities Marcus M. Wilson to UGA Assistant Athletic Director of Compliance Eric Baumgartner shortly after the NCAA informed UGA by phone last Wednesday that investigators would come to the Georgia campus to conduct an “inquiry.”

The probe is believed to be the latest in a series of investigations of possible improper benefits received by college football players from sports agents. Investigations also are underway at North …

Continue reading NCAA notice to UGA: One Bulldog under scrutiny (UPDATED) »

A few quick items to start the week (more later today):

• The University of Georgia has placed a want ad for what might well be your dream job: running the Bulldogs’ athletics department.

UGA posted the ad for its vacant athletic-director position on the NCAA’s website. The ad says the position “requires someone who has considerable expertise in intercollegiate athletics management, a keen business sense and an appreciation for the important role athletics plays in a great public university.”

Eighteen “duties and responsibilities” of the job are listed, ranging from “coordinating the recruitment, selection and evaluation of all coaches” to “serv[ing] as the primary spokesperson of the Department.”

Interested? Click here for the ad, which includes info on how to apply.

• Georgia’s annual Bulldog Club tour ends Monday night with the “Celebration of Georgia Athletics” at the Cobb Galleria Centre. Social begins at 5:30 p.m. and program at 7 p.m. Admission and parking are …

Continue reading Georgia posts want ad for AD »

The University of Georgia released cell-phone records Friday that show about 250 text messages exchanged, over a period of a few weeks, between former athletics director Damon Evans and the woman who was in the car with him when he was arrested.

The records show that Evans and Courtney Fuhrmann, 28, exchanged four texts shortly after 9 a.m. on July 1, the morning after both were arrested in Atlanta -– Evans on a DUI charge and Fuhrmann on a charge of disorderly conduct.

The records also show that Evans placed two phone calls to Fuhrmann, lasting a total of eight minutes, on the night of July 1, about an hour after he held a news conference in Athens to apologize for the arrest.

Georgia released Evans’ cell-phone bill for the month beginning June 7 on Friday afternoon; it was not available when UGA handed over about 500 pages of documents earlier this week in response to an open-records request from the AJC.

The records released earlier included a May 21 e-mail from Fuhrmann to …

Continue reading Phone records: Evans, Fuhrmann exchanged about 250 texts »

Georgia plans to reprint some 14,000 football media guides — at a cost of about $50,000 — to remove references to ousted athletics director Damon Evans.

The Bulldogs’ annual media guide, which is distributed to donors, recruits and the media, as well as sold to the general public,  was printed shortly before Evans’ June 30 DUI arrest and subsequent resignation.

“The timing made it a very unusual circumstance,” Georgia associate athletics director Claude Felton told the AJC. “After discussions among Alan Thomas in the development office, [interim AD] Frank Crumley and myself, we felt like the best thing under the circumstances would be to do a partial reprint.”

Approximately 21,000 media guides were in the original printing, Felton said. Although some have been distributed, mostly to media and recruits, the majority remain in boxes.

UGA is holding off on distribution to about 9,000 donors until the guides are reprinted. The reprints also are expected to be distributed at SEC …

Continue reading UGA will reprint football media guides to edit out Evans »

ATHENS – Starting his first full day on the job as Georgia’s interim athletics director, Frank Crumley addressed more than 100 staff members Wednesday morning, imploring them to carry on “business as usual.”

Exactly one week earlier, at the start of the day that would end with him being pulled over by the Georgia State Patrol, Damon Evans had gathered the same folks in the same room for a quarterly staff meeting. At the end of that meeting,  door prizes were handed out.

So when Crumley opened the floor for questions after brief remarks Wednesday, he got only one:

“Are there any door prizes?”

Rocked by the arrest and resignation of Evans, and still absorbing UGA President Michael Adams‘ statement that he’ll “first look outside” for a permanent successor to Evans as athletics director, Georgia’s staff seemed to seek some normalcy on Wednesday — and even an occasional laugh.

“It was short and sweet,” Crumley said of his remarks to the staff. “I said, ‘We’ve all had a stressful …

Continue reading Interim AD Crumley presides over the calm after the storm »

ATHENS — Georgia football coach Mark Richt met with a few reporters in the atrium of the Butts-Mehre building late this afternoon and talked publicly for the first time about the arrest and resignation of  Damon Evans. Richt expressed sadness for Evans and his family, endorsed the selection of Frank Crumley as interim athletics director and expressed confidence that UGA President Michael Adams will make a wise decision on Evans’ permanent successor.

Following are excerpts from the conversation with Richt.

His general feelings about what has happened:

“I do feel for Damon and his family. I’ve been working with Damon for almost 10 years now. I had a very good working relationship with Damon and a very good personal relationship, too, with him and his family. I’m definitely sad for everyone from that regard.

“Moving forward, I think President  Adams has done a really very fine job of handling the situation the way he did. I think having Frank Crumley as the interim AD right now …

Continue reading Richt shares thoughts on Evans’ arrest, resignation »

ATHENS -– The six days since a shocking telephone call interrupted his vacation in Nashville have been “clearly one of the most difficult times I have been through,” University of Georgia President Michael Adams said Tuesday.

The early morning call last Thursday brought the news of Damon Evans’ arrest in Atlanta on a DUI charge. By the time all the details emerged, Adams said, there was only one possible conclusion: Evans, Georgia’s highly regarded athletics director, had to go.

“The tragedy of all of this is what a terrific job he has done the last six years,” Adams said, speaking publicly about the matter for the first time. “I regret deeply the closure and the kind of closure this relationship had. But, once I learned all the facts, I felt like there was no choice in my role to do what is best for the university.”

Adams, who cut his vacation short and drove home Thursday night, made it clear to Evans in a meeting Friday that he could not remain in the job. Evans offered his …

Continue reading Adams’ media briefing: Just one question about anything other than Evans fallout »

The same board that five months ago approved a new five-year, $3.25-million contract for Damon Evans will convene at 11 a.m. today to hear details of his resignation.

This morning’s meeting, via conference call, of the UGA Athletic Board’s executive committee is expected to reveal Evans’ resignation settlement and perhaps the game plan for choosing his successor as Georgia’s athletics director. I’ll be listening in on the call from the Butts-Mehre building and will post updates on Twitter (@ajcuga), so please follow me there.

Meanwhile, I keep thinking about that meeting barely five months ago -– Feb. 3 -– at which the Athletic Board expressed its enthusiastic approval of Evans’ job performance by giving him a new five-year contract and a $110,000-a-year raise.

At that meeting, UGA President Michael Adams said of Evans:  “He’s already become a nationally recognized figure in athletics, and we are fortunate to have him. . . . I think he’s done an extraordinary job. . . . And …

Continue reading Five months later, a very different Athletic Board meeting »

I’m away on vacation — hey, this is supposed to be a slow time on the UGA beat — but my esteemed AJC colleagues have full coverage of the Damon Evans story. Please click on the links below:

• The latest news on Evans’ arrest, press conference and future from AJC reporters  Chip Towers, Christian Boone, Larry Hartstein, Kristi E. Swartz, Chelsea Cook and Laura Diamond.

• Evans’ first court date is set, Rhonda Cook reports.

• Mark Bradley’s column.

• Curtis Compton’s photos from the news conference.

• A story on student reaction by Chelsea Cook.
  

• Junkyard Blawger Bill King’s blog.

Continue reading The Damon Evans story »

Georgia has self-reported nine secondary violations of NCAA rules this year — a list of transgressions that provides a glimpse into the minutiae of the NCAA rulebook.

The violations, revealed in response to an open-records request by the AJC, cover a range of sports — a football coach returning a call to a high school junior, basketball recruits sitting in the wrong seats in Stegeman Coliseum, a track-and-field recruit being reimbursed an extra 5 cents per mile.

All crossed the line of NCAA bylaws.

Schools routinely self-report secondary violations to the NCAA, which defines them as inadvertent missteps that don’t create a significant competitive advantage. Georgia’s nine violations since Jan. 1 are a typical number for that time period; UGA reported 10 in the final six months of last year.

“Not to make any excuses, but the NCAA manual is over 400 pages thick, with other interpretations out there too,” said Eric Baumgartner, Georgia’s assistant athletics director for …

Continue reading UGA reports nine secondary violations »

Georgia posted the second best score among SEC football teams in the Academic Progress Rate (APR) statistics released Wednesday by the NCAA.

UGA’s football team had an APR of 973 out of a possible 1,000, topped only by Vanderbilt’s 975 in the SEC. The national average for football teams was 944.

Georgia had the SEC’s highest scores in women’s basketball (1,000), men’s golf (1,000) and gymnastics (996). The baseball team posted Georgia’s lowest APR, 941.

The Bulldogs’ men’s basketball team recorded a score of 944, which ranked fifth among SEC teams. The national average for men’s basketball teams was 940.

All of Georgia’s 20 sports teams posted scores comfortably above the NCAA-mandated threshold of 925. Teams that post APR scores below 925 and have a player leave school ineligible can be assessed penalties, including loss of scholarships.

The APR is an NCAA-designed measure that assesses the eligibility, retention and graduation of athletes over a four-year period. The figures …

Continue reading Vandy No. 1, UGA No. 2 in SEC football academics (Plus: APR for all UGA sports, all SEC football teams) »

Cleaning out the notebook after an interesting week at the SEC meetings:

• In the Birminghan News’ 64th annual Spring SEC Football Preview, Alabama and Florida again are picked to win their divisions, with Georgia predicted to finish second in the East. The News surveyed the SEC  schools’ football information directors, asking them to predict the order of finish in their division (without including their own team). Florida and Alabama got the maximum available five first-place votes in the East and West, respectively.  Georgia got the other first-place vote in the East (Florida’s), three second-place votes and one third-place.  This is how the poll turned out:

West: 1. Alabama. 2 (tie). LSU and Arkansas. 4. Auburn. 5. Ole Miss. 6. Mississippi State.

East: 1. Florida. 2. Georgia. 3. South Carolina. 4. Tennessee. 5. Kentucky. 6. Vanderbilt.

Separately, the SEC football info directors were asked to rank the league’s teams without regard to division (and again without voting for …

Continue reading The notebook: Poll puts Dogs No. 2 in East … SEC happy in ATL … Etc. »

Hoping to capitalize on the buzz about Bulldogs basketball, Georgia plans to add 28 premium and pricey courtside seats in Stegeman Coliseum for the 2010-11 season.

The plan is to add 12 sideline courtside seats, six on each side of the radio table, and 16 baseline courtside seats, eight on each side of the basket in a second row behind the existing baseline courtside seats.

The sideline seats will require a $2,500 per seat annual donation to qualify for, and the baseline seats will require a $1,750 per seat annual donation. Potential additional revenue: $58,000 if all of the new seats are sold.

The new  seats will raise the total number of Stegeman’s premium courtside seats from 60 to 88.

*****

Georgia’s Athletic Association projects that it will bring in $18.76 million from ticket sales in the 2010-11 school year –- a whopping 92.8 percent of that from football.

The association projects football ticket revenue of $17.4 million, not including the donations made just for the …

Continue reading The UGA notebook: pricey new seats, fretting the Gators, etc. »