Clemson vs. UGA '03
With Georgia upgrading its non-conference schedule, I thought I'd take a minute to research some useless trivia about the historical out of conference games played by Georgia.
UGA's most played non-conference opponents who still actively play football are (Includes Bowls):
- 1. Georgia Tech* - 101 games
2. Clemson - 62 (last played 2003)
3. North Carolina - 30 (last played 1971)
4. Tulane* - 25 (last played 1985)
4. Furman - 23 (last played 1950)
5.
6. Virginia - 19 (last played 2000)
7. Miami (Fla.) - 12 (last played 1966)
8 (tie) Florida State - 11 (last played 2002)
8 (tie) Yale - 11 (last played 1934)
10. The Citadel - (last played 1958)
*Many games with GT and Tulane were played prior to their respective departures from the SEC.
- South Carolina - The Dawgs have played the Gamecocks 59 times, but 44 of those match-ups took place prior to the chickens joining the SEC in 1992. I would wager that few teams have three non-conference opponents with 40+ games played against them (GT, SC and Clemson). Vince Dooley and Georgia were the chief sponsors for South Carolina's admission into the SEC. You'd think they could show some gratitude. Overall record 44-13-2. 11-4 in SEC play.
- Clemson - From 1920-1973, Georgia ran up a blistering 21-1-1 record against the Tigers. The series was played almost every year from 1962-1991. The series turned in 1974 with a Tiger victory, and it stayed fairly even until '91. Under the lights in Athens, Georgia began its current 5 game winning streak. Record: 41-17-4
- Tulane - Tulane left the SEC in 1966, and we've only played them 5 times since their departure. Oddly enough, the two teams faced each other in New Haven, Connecticut in 1932. I have no idea why. We tried to book at 2 for 1 with them for '02, '03 and '08, but they cancelled at the last minute leaving the Dawgs high and dry.
- Miami - All 12 games were played in Miami. Most of them were booked by Wally Butts, and quite a few were played *after* the Georgia Tech game. UGA is 7-4-1 vs. the Canes.
- North Carolina - The Bulldogs have played the Tar Heels 30 times in 7 different cities (Athens, Chapel Hill, Jacksonville, Atlanta, Macon, New Orleans and Raleigh). Record: 16-12-2
- Yale - Of the 11 match-ups with Yale, only the 1929 game was in Athens. The others were all at Yale. The '29 game was the grand opening of Sanford Stadium.
- Mississippi State - UGA has only played MSU 21 times despite both schools being charter members of the Southeastern Conference. The league didn't establish a firm rotation of conference opponents until the 1970s or 80s. GT has only played MSU *twice* all-time and only once while they were both SEC members from 1929-until GT's departure in the 60s.
- Tennessee -- The Dawgs have played the Vols 36 times, but we had only played 21 times prior to SEC expansion in '92. That's right...we had played UVA and North Carolina more frequently. Odd huh?
- LSU - Georgia has only played the Bayou Bengals 26 times, and we've only met four times in the regular season since conference expansion in '92. That's an freakish occurance due to the SEC switching from a 5-1-2 divisional rotation to a 5-2-1 rotation in '02. We didn't play the Tigers from 1954-1977.
- Arkansas - The Razorbacks and Dawgs have only tangled 11 times; however, we've met in seven different cities including Fayetteville, Athens, Dallas, Shreveport, Memphis, New Orleans and Atlanta.
See Also:
-- Georgia Series Records - College Football Data Warehouse
PWD
14 comments:
Some quick CFBDW research on Arkansas, since I bet they also have some OOC 40+ series from the old SWAC.
vs. Baylor 35-33-2 (70 games)
vs. oSu 30-15-1 (46 games)
vs. SMU 37-31-5 (73 games)
vs. Texas 21-55 (76 games)
vs. aTm 38-24-3 (65 games)
vs. TCU 43-23-2 (68 games)
vs. Tulsa 51-16-3 (70 games)
I seriously doubt any other program can claim as many as 7 OOC 40+ rivalries.
Not surprisingly, the 2 SEC schools that the Hogs have played the most are Ole Miss (53) and LSU (52).
Mercer still plays football?!?
I think your acronyms are off, hobnail. The SWC was the Southwest Conference of old you're referring to. The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) is still an active lower-division athletic conference.
Here is the scheduling research project I would love to see. Beginning with the Dooley era, I would like to know:
1. who Georgia and Florida each played the weekend before the Cocktail Party, including any "off" dates either had before, and run this through the arrival of Spurrier, the re-make of the SEC alignment, to current times.
I would like to see if there is any pattern or validity to the current FLA run and the "off" weekend they have enjoyed before the Cocktail Party since the 90's.
Interesting that, of all the places we've played Arkansas, none was at War Memorial in Little Rock. I think that'd be a fun roadie.
Anon: RE: Mercer
Touche
I left Sewanne (sp?) off the list. We played them 12 times when we were all members of the old Southern Conference.
That's also why the numbers are so high for Furman
"I would like to see if there is any pattern or validity to the current FLA run and the "off" weekend they have enjoyed before the Cocktail Party since the 90's."
Personally, I'm a bit tired of hiding behind excuses. Off weekends or not, there have been several years in recent times where Georgia was the better team and fell apart in Jacksonville. One of them cost Georgia any hopes at a national title shot. Georgia could've just as easily scheduled off weeks before the Florida game and didn't.
Patterns should indicate future behavior. Instead far too many of us are looking for patterns to justify past behavior.
UNC was the power house in football in the very early beginnings and when Ga's teams started up they worked their way up to competing with them regularly. They were a welcomed match in the late 1800's and early 1900's and early on got the best of the red and black.
A few things I'd like to see more information on that I am aware of, but too busy/lazy to research:
1)One year in the late 50's, Ole Miss and Miss St. came to Atlanta and played Georgia and Georgia Tech in an SEC doubleheader. I've heard because football fortunes and purse strings were low for the Mississippi schools and UGA. Sounds like a great day of football though.
2)I've heard there are reasons there have been so few games with Tennesseee and LSU, going back several decades. LSU because of basically a riot following UGA/LSU in Athens when they tried to take the goalposts and UGA students fought them off with baseball bats and fenceposts. Tennessee because of a near shooting at the goal line before World War I. I know Dan Magill wrote a story about it. And we think fans are out of hand now.
Well, I don't know about "excuses." But if you look at the Florida/Georgia/Auburn triangle, you can see that the fact these 3 schools played each other in the rotation that they did cost all 3 schools several SEC titles prior to 1990. Alabama and Tennessee both won an SEC title or two with some help from this setup.
People make a big deal out of UF not winning an SEC title before then. But having to play Auburn and UGA in two weeks cost the Gators big. They had a close series with Auburn, yet trailed UGA by more than 20 games. Auburn and UGA traded series leads in the 80's and the series remains close.
Typically, UGA played its homecoming game vs. Temple, Memphis, Richmond, etc. the week before playing Florida, while the Gators were battling Auburn. That was a big advantage for UGA, who beat many Florida teams with as much or better talent then we had. In fact, had it not been for UGA, Florida may have won 8 to 10 SEC titles prior to 1990. Steve Spurrier knew that. His whole vendetta against UGA went well beyond what happened in 1966.
While UGA was battling Florida, Auburn was either taking the week off or playing its homecoming game against a Cincinnati or an East Carolina type team. The next week UGA would take on Auburn. As we are painfully aware, many fresher Tigers teams have upset favored or equal UGA teams costing UGA several SEC titles.
Auburn would then have to play its biggest rival, Alabama, after tangling with the Dawgs. Many years Bama was just better than Auburn and everyone else in the SEC. But you know that it had to have an effect on the outcome of a few of those games. After all, Auburn went from 1957 to 1983 without an SEC title. That's too long for a program like Auburn.
Spurrier said publicly when he came to Florida that they had to change the tide of the UGA series in order to win the SEC title, and he was right. The SEC changed its schedules in 1992 and again in 1997. Seperating the Auburn and UGA games did a lot to help Florida win a bunch of SEC titles.
Excuses? I don't know. I think the results speak for themselves.
The unbalanced SEC scheduling would make for a fascinating analysis of old SEC Championships. For example, Alabama and Tennessee are 1 and 2, respectively, in nearly every meaningful SEC category (SECCs, wins, win %, bowls, bowl wins, etc.). How many more SECCs would those teams have had if they didn't play every year and could have shared titles? Same with Uga and Auburn.
Meanwhile, Tennessee has played few games all-time against Florida, which is unfortunate for the Vols because UF was generally terrible until the 1980s. But UT also avoided Auburn for large chunks...
At least now you have to beat nearly everyone to win the SEC.
1899 Sewanee team was the one that beat 5 schools in 6 days (Texas, Texas A&M, Tulane, Ole Miss, and LSU), all on the road, and all by shutout.
Actually, Florida wasn't horrible during the 1980's. They weren't great either, but decent. Though their 1983, 1984, and 1985 teams all finished in the top 10.
1980: 8-4, Tangerine Bowl
1981: 7-5, Peach Bowl
1982: 8-4, Bluebonnet Bowl
1983: 9-2-1, Gator Bowl
1984: 9-1-1, probation
1985: 9-1-1, probation
1986: 6-5, probation
1987: 6-6, Aloha Bowl
1988: 7-5, All-American Bowl
1989: 7-5, Freedom Bowl
The Gators beat Tennessee in 1985. But since they weren't eligible for the SEC title, Tennessee was the champ and went on to blow out Miami in the Sugar Bowl.
A lot of people compare Florida to South Carolina (especially Cocks and for some reason Tennessee fans) prior to 1990. That's a bad comparison. Florida had about a .570 record overall, was about .500 in SEC play, won 8 of 18 bowl appearances, and had played in the Orange and Sugar Bowls in the 60's and 70's. They just weren't winning SEC titles.
The Gators were 6-13 vs. Tennessee prior to 1990. But were 6-3 vs. the Vols from 1954-1990.
Thanks for the edit Dante, you're right. That's what I get for posting at 2am.
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