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Georgia football scheduling: Sanford Stadium non-conference slate watered down

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Georgia football scheduling: Sanford Stadium non-conference slate watered down

ATHENS — If the Florida-Georgia football rivalry continues to be played in Jacksonville beyond 2021, one unintended consequence will be watered-down schedules at Sanford Stadium for several years. Georgia plays home-and-home series with other SEC East Division teams, such as Vanderbilt, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky

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ATD

You make a good point Mike. Outside of SEC games at Dooley Field/Sanford Stadium, the non-conference games are awful. Fans deserve better for the costs involved of attending live games and supporting the Dawgs.

Dawg365

The folks that make these schedules should be ashamed. I'm sorry but if these schools have to rely on playing UGA to keep their athletics funded for the year, they probably shouldn't field a team. I am for completely removing ALL (out of conference) home cupcake games.

Classof98

Marquee non-conference games are overrated.

If we lost at Notre Dame in 2017, there is no playoff. No trip to Pasadena. No national championship game.

Just schedule cupcakes out of conference.

87dawg

Why do we even play in Atlanta? Sanford Stadium has 20,000 more seats AND it is our home stadium. Not to mention the most beautiful venue in all of college sports. I hate "neutral site" games. I hate traveling to the other guy's stadium but we still go to that hell-hole crate on north avenue.

ShoottheHooch

Name another SEC school that regularly schedules top out of conference home-and-home games. Since Kirby has arrived, UGA has scheduled the home-and-homes mentioned in the story but the rest of the SEC has not followed suit. Bama loves scheduling early neutral field games in HS talent laden states to promote their brand for recruiting purposes but treats their home cupcake schedule as if it's sacred. Find another reason to bash UGA football.

unknown

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Mickey_Hand

As usual, the fans are left **** hind ****. All the money UGA has spent since ’15 has been for the team’s benefit or to impress recruits – not one bit of improvement in fan experience, unless you want to count q slightly larger scoreboard. We can’t have a decent Home schedule or even a decent restroom. 🤬🤬

kirkhilles

Yep, it is what it is. No school would be foolish enough to add difficulty to their schedule as it isn't rewarded in rankings. Just look at Clemson. Imagine if they played a tougher school instead of UNC and lost the game. Let's look at their opponents this year and their current Win/Loss records:

GA Tech: 2-5
Texas A&M: 4-3
Syracuse: 3-4
UNC: 3-4
Florida State: 3-4
Louisville: 4-3
Boston College: 4-3 (Lost to: Kansas, Wake Forest, Louisville)
Wofford: 4-2 (Hasn't played against a real team like: Gardner-Webb, UT Chattanooga, VMI)
NC State: 4-3 (Lost to: West Virginia, FSU, Boston College)
#25 Wake Forest: 6-1 (Ooh, a REAL team: won against weak ACC opponents)
South Carolina 3-4

We're halfway through the season and most of these teams have had 3+ losses already against Basketball schools. Clemson is GUARANTEED to be in the playoffs unless they botch a cupcake game... and that's even with a 1 point win against UNC. If you aren't going to be penalized for a weak strength of schedule, then why bother? Clemson should be scrambling to ensure that they add in the toughest opponents available to compensate for a conference that is Basketball focused.

Change needs to happen from the top and the NCAA is quite happy with the way things are.

bobby

And just another reason I'm lessening my donations going forward. I've been donating, and often well over the required amount since I graduated in the late 90's. With the addition of the Magill Society, a portion of the fan base has jumped over me in points making it even more difficult to get the marquee away games, SEC Championship tickets, and most importantly...seat improvements at Sanford. With the extra money i would typically spend on donation, I'll be spending that money on away tickets via the secondary market (Bama-2020). Just doesn't seem worth it to pay all that extra in donations to get two cupcakes, a couple "good" SEC games, and Tech every other year. Seeing Florida come to Athens every other year is what was needed, but its not about us...the fans...its about getting all the "extra" money you can get. That extra won't be coming from me. Go Dawgs.

ScoreCheck

I have been a season ticket holder for nearly 40 years. I'm so sick and tired of the cup-cake games in Athens. McGarity and Company lost a golden opportunity to award the fans with a quality opponent (UF) in Athens every other year. Going forward I'm seriously considering staying at home to watch all of the UGA Football games. Sure I would miss the excitement of watching the games in Athens. But I would not miss us playing the Sister's of the Poor, 6 hours of driving (round trip), the over priced crappy stadium food and the God Awful restrooms.

Hey McGarity I'm sure you are proud of the extra bucks made my keeping the UGA / FLA game in Jacksonville. But for the rest of the fans not so much.

williewolf

Are we degenerating back to the Citrus and Belk Bowls?

AskBillyB

The schedule problem is NOT Jacksonville (though I agree UF should be home-home). What's hurting is schools like East Tennessee, Louisiana Monroe, San Jose State, UAB, Charleston Southern, Sanford, Kent State, Tennessee Tech, UMass and Charlotte. If UGA wants to improve its chances of making the CFP, they should eliminate these games and replace them with Power5 schools (on which the selection committee historically has shown it places a greater value).

Not necessarily a steady diet of elite schools which could result in a LOSS, mind you. Instead, target mid- and lower-tier P5 schools which the Ohio States and Clemsons and Oklahomas of the college football world get fat on each year. Wouldn't it be great to have Indiana or Maryland or Duke or Oregon State on the schedule? Dawgs get credit for beating a P5 school and the chance of LOSING to programs of this ilk would be only slightly greater than UAB or Sanford or UMass.

DallasDawg

I disagree @AskBillyB . Clemson routinely has one of the weakest schedules anywhere -- because their conference is weak, yet they're in the playoff hunt every year. Same goes for Alabama. They may get one big neutral-site game every other year or so, but their home non-conference schedule is always filled with nothing but 2nd-tier teams. Our real problem, quiet as it's kept, is that Ga. Tech is not competitive and hasn't been for a while. The biggest difference between us and our SEC brethren, Florida and South Carolina, schedule-wise, is that their annual traditional ACC opponents, Florida State and Clemson, respectively, are usually in the hunt for a National Championship, thus making those schools otherwise bland home schedules look somewhat exciting, at least every other year. Of course, Florida State has been down now for the past couple of years, but that's a recent trend. If Georgia Tech was playing at the level of those other two ACC schools, there wouldn't be nearly as much griping about UGA's home schedule. Even the writer of this piece says that UGA "won’t see another high-profile, non-conference Power 5 team in Athens again until 2026, when UCLA plays the return game," completely ruling out the possibility that Georgia Tech might become decent in the next 2-3 years. It seems like a long-shot but then again, so did Clemson when Dabo first took over. Things change. Sometimes rapidly. Just look at the Dawgs this season!

UGA66

When you haplessly lose to a team like SC, it kind of goes beyond scheduling if you simply lose to a team or teams designated to help your ratings. Clemson may have one of the weakest schedules but where do they stand nationally? Top 4. Generally, top 2. Florida, Auburn, A&M look like pretty substantial foes right now. Let's call SC a fluke....lol. Outside the conference, any Power 5 is good. Not so much though the host of a lot of these dinglberry schools that have players and call it football. Then again, how would UGA stack up in the SEC West...huh?

rtparkeriv

As long as others keep scheduling cupcakes, Georgia has no choice. But, I do have choices. I give every year and buy season tickets, but don’t qualify for the big road games. I can take that money and buy whatever games I want on the secondary market, home or away.

College football attendance is declining and until everybody comes together and strengthen their schedules, it will get worse. Georgia is spending millions on facilities, yet fans endure horrible restroom and concession facilities and overcrowding on concourses.