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End of SEC divisions should mean stronger schedules for the Dawgs
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End of SEC divisions should mean stronger schedules for the Dawgs
It appears likely that Dawgs fans will bid farewell to the SEC East this fall.
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Just love Bill King. He's the GOAT of all Dawg journalists of all time as far as I am concerned. He's also a DGD. He has hit the nails on the head squarely with this article. Football games are so expensive these days, it is really bad to bring in these patsy nonconference schools every day. Like they say, "steel forges steel." Playing world class competition may increase the risk of a loss, but it also makes the team significantly better.
I agree with Bill also about Stegeman. Let's just make Stegeman better instead of spending hundreds of millions on a new arena. We can put that money into elevating our basketball team. I hope that Price works out, but this season gives me great doubt. He was on the rocks at Florida when we hired him. If it does not get better and we do not get into the NCAA next year, Mr Brooks needs to start a nationwide search for a proven elite college basketball coach who can recruit the Atlanta metro area and lock down the state's talent. There is enough talent here in the state to bring championships. to Athens and a renovated Stegeman Colisseum virtually every year. Let's elevate Georgia basketball to the level of our football program!
Really getting tired of hearing about UGA's '23 schedule. We all know what happened.
Schedules are made years in advance and were made to balance a presumed tough SEC schedule vs an easier OOC schedule. This was done during the 4 team playoff era where 1 loss can knock you out of the playoffs. See '21 Clemson who UGA knocked out of contention in week 1 of the '21 season.
The fact that the SEC E has had FU and TN down for a while or that the SEC made UGA cancel games with OK ('23) and TX is not UGA's fault.
The schedule is what it is for '23. Is there really a need to continue to beat this dead horse?
Personally I think the SEC wimped out by making UGA cancel the OK game. Why not play it as scheduled (home and home) and let the 1st SEC matchup between the teams be at the other's place? Problem solved and what a preview for fans to see future SEC OK vs SEC powerhouse UGA.
And, please end that yearly home game for FU in Jax! Ridiculous to deprive the 2 fan bases from seeing their biggest rival on their home field. Any rotation that includes Jax or Atlanta is just dumb. Possibly the biggest recruiting game every other year and it can't be used for recruiting. Reading JS's recruiting stories you constantly hear recruits talking about the UGA/TN game in Athens last year. Why is UGA giving that up every other year? UGA recruits Florida better than Georgia. Even Florida recruits may go to the game in Gainesville as FU guests just to see UGA play.
It is a new era in CFB (12 team playoff). The fear of losing 2 games and being out of the playoffs is now minimized. Schedules will be adjusted accordingly. But schedule progression cannot be attained overnight. Talking about UGA's '23 schedule is an effort in futility. It's done. Move on.
"Really getting tired of hearing about UGA's '23 schedule. We all know what happened." UGADad20
Exactly! Bill probably should have waited to bring us another article, one with more merit. '23 will be the last season where the quality of home games is as bad as this. We will soon see greater talented teams at home just like Bill wants. So why cry about this upcoming season? And, it's a no brainer that millions are not going to be dumped into the basketball venue until the team gets better. Why repeat what everyone already knows? Bill is thought of as a long time journalist the likes of Furman Bisher, but I gotta say, this was as lazy of an effort as I have seen from the "legend".
Stegman/UGA basketball. For whatever reasons, UGA can't successfully recruit from the extensive HS basketball talent located in GA. Coaching hires , facilities, NIL, tradition, whatever.
Until UGA can recruit talent in its home state the status quo will remain. What will it take to change? Might be worth pumping some NIL money into a few blue chip, program building recruits to get things started.
UGA also needs to make a splash HC hire. Think the Deion Sanders of CBB. Jerry Stackhouse (who coached AAU ball in GA before Vandy) would've been an upgrade over Tom Crean or Mike White. Especially from a recruiting standpoint.
UGA's bball program is at ground zero. The status quo in NIL/facilities and continued parade of no name coaches will all but guarantee continued mediocrity. It really isn't that hard to figure out.
I love the weak home games. As I'm not a season ticket holder, it's one of the few opportunities where I can buy good tickets and enjoy the live game atmosphere at Sanford without taking out a second mortgage to get on the season ticket wait list for crappy nose-bleed seats.
Please! How can an argument be made with a straight face that basketball players care nothing about being wowed by top notch facilities when tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars spent on the flashiest, state-of-the-art facilities are needed to turn the heads of blue chip football recruits?
Football players could care less about the restrooms and narrow corridors the fans have to deal with at Sanford while they are eating steak and lobster pre-game meals and lounging in their football palace. All UGA basketball players have to look forward to is going to the latest rendition of putting lipstick on a pig, ugliest eye sore on any college campus in the country Stegeman Coliseum “to hone their game for a year or two”.
I certainly don’t want less money to be spent on football! I watch every minute of every game and revel in the team’s success and love Sanford! I have never gone to any event at Stegeman without feeling like I am in a second if not third class venue watching athletes who are treated like second class citizens compared to their football counterparts try to compete at a championship level with the odds heavily stacked against them.
Are we still going to have the SEC championship game? I've heard nothing, one way or the other. Also, for all of you that are so happy (as of right now) to see all this drastic change going on, be careful what you wish for.
GO DAWGS!
Good article Bill and you got me wondering about a potential issue. If we go to the 9 team cycle with 3 permanent opponents, it’s likely we will have as our “perms”: Florida, Auburn and another debatable choice. If that’s the case, will Auburn have the opportunity to pay us back for the home game we forfeited several years ago when Texas A&M and Missouri joined the conference? Hopefully that’s the case, but is it possible we could lose another home game to the “Barn”? Of course, there is also a possibility that the game remains in the current cycle and neither of the scenarios mentioned occur. Go Dawgs!
1) Part of the issue of home schedule has been the less than appealing SEC East teams. This could get mitigated by rotating more teams from the west, but is MSU really an improvement over any SECE team besides Vandy? Maybe the novelty makes it better. (I am all for scrapping the divisions BTW but realistic about what it can actually mean.)
2) I find it interesting that the guy who has signed top 3 recruiting classes every year thinks that playing UF at home will make any noticeable difference. Just as Mike White notes the basketball team is not losing recruits because of the Steg, I doubt any recruit would sign with UGA if it were playing UF at home every other year.
From an UGA season ticket holder perspective, the shakeup in the SEC scheduling can only bring improvements to a somewhat mediocre home game schedule in general - and downright LOUSY home schedule for 2023.
There is nothing but positives for going to a 9-team SEC schedule and an expanded playoff. I can't wait until 2024! Let the fun begin!
I’ll make that argument, easily. Just down the road from Duke’s small, old, Cameron Indoor that Bill mentioned (and that very rich Duke will never replace), NC State basketball has never been the same since they left old, small Reynolds Coliseum to play big shiny 20,000 seat plus PNC Arena, which is often half empty now when they play home games. That move completely killed their fans passion for home games. Name a basketball program that was mediocre with an old venue that suddenly became a power once a new venue was built? Mike White is saying the same thing: it isn’t hurting recruiting. I’ll listen to him.
Yes other teams have older basketball arenas, but none have a campus eyesore like Stegeman which was better served accommodating farm animals rather than championship worthy athletes. Do you seriously think tearing down Stegeman and replacing it with a 12,000 to 15,000 seat arena that fits with the other new architecture on campus with state-of-the- art basketball specific training facilities would kill Dawg fans “…passion for home games.”? You can’t kill what is already dead!
We know Bill, all you care about is the home schedule OK? All most fans care about, because most fans do not go to every game or any games, is winning the SEC and the Natty...I would rather play Samford and Shaw High School every year and win them both than play Ohio St and Bama every year and lose one or both. Sure sometimes we might win them both, but you know what? Most years you do not and throw in one more loss along the way and your season is OVER.
That being said, this is a new era coming and you can have a loss or 2. So that makes it much more doable to give Bill King his glorious home schedule. Road schedule he does not care one iota about.
But making every home game a juggernaut, may be good for Bill and the other season tickets holders and the big wigs who are still not priced out of going to a home game, but to the common fan, we want wins much more than we want Bill to be look at his schedule every year and not see W's, but see the big games that could be losses...
@ColumbusDawg...I have to generally disagree with you. I'm not a season ticket holder as I live in God's Big Sky country called Montana and have for over 20 years. However, I used to be a season ticket holder for many years after graduating from UGA in the 80s. I know what it's like to sit through a boring game against the likes of Samford or Ball State. Personally, those kind of games do have their positives like giving more playing time to the backups usually, but they also give plenty of time for injuries to key players that didn't need to happen. Kirby wants tougher Power-5 opponents and so do I. I would rather see us lose to Ohio State in a nailbiter than win big against Ball State and lose a key guy to injury. Sorry, that's just the way I see it and that is coming from a true rabid college football fan who just loves seeing really good teams play each other - whatever the outcome. So that is why I am excited about more SEC opponents and an expanded playoff. Yes, it will be a gauntlet to get through and win a Natty, but it sure will mean that much more to the team that does win it all in the new playoff era. The depth and talent of your bench will be key.
You can’t possibly be serious that you are comparing Duke basketball, a 5 time national champion and always in the hunt for the title and Georgia basketball, who has not been in the NCAA tournament in 8 years and only 5 times since 2000. That’s like comparing Georgia football to Georgia Southern football. It’s a joke and you have lost all credibility. Go ahead and ask Kirby Smart about facilities and if they matter to recruits. I already know the answer but go ahead and ask him. Stegman is a dump! It needs to be torn down and replaced. People like you saying continuing to say Stegman is still fine is why Georgia will never have a good, consistent basketball team. You probably said the Georgia Dome was good before they tore it down not knowing the roof kept tearing. Georgia arguably has the worst basketball arena in the SEC, it rivals only Vanderbilt and that’s sad. Stegman needs to be replaced and recent events only enhance that narrative. Give Mike White a chance without him having one hand tied behind his back. He, the players and our university deserve better than some garbage, old rundown arena.
Maybe 1 cupcake game a year, as long as it's balanced . WHat I don't want is we give up our cupcakes and BAMA somewhow gets to keep theirs.
THe new schedule (Should) stop most of the CC games. Somebody probably though is going to get Vandy, Arkansas and Missouri. That won't be as strong as BAMA, Tenn, and UGA or Auburn.
All in all I'm for tougher matches. Beating a team 65-7 when you're suppposed to, isn't that exciting. I even heard some UGA fans stopped watching the NC game at half-time, much less an Alcon St. meaningless game. Go DAWGS!
As a season ticket holder the idea that we would play every SEC team at home ever 4 years is very appealing. I love taking road trips to see the Dawgs play SEC West games and see other SEC campuses. Waiting 12 years to see us play Texas A&M on the road is ridiculous.