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August 11, 2008

Schedule Rumor: TCU vs. Georgia?

The AJC reported over the weekend that Georgia is in very preliminary discussions with TCU regarding a possible football series in Athens and in Jerry Jones' new Dallas Cowboys Stadium. The games would be played in the 2013-2015 time frame.

Arthur Johnson, the assistant AD in charge of scheduling, described the deal as far from done for a variety of reasons including the lack of a firm SEC schedule beyond 2011 and Georgia's desire for more home games in the future.

But why TCU? Here's a look at Georgia's future non-conference schedules combined with the SEC West rotation for those years.

The Time Frame in Question:
    2013 -- We need two more non-conference home games that year. One will likely be a Div I-AA team. You'd think we could just buy the other game against a UAB/UCF/Marshall type squad. It can't be a Ben Hur epic match-up given that we're already playing all our normal foes plus Clemson, LSU and Bama. Why bother booking at home and home with anyone starting this year?

    2014 -- The schedule ratchets down with Bama rotating off, and we have a road game available. The appeal of a TCU series starting in 2014 might be a big payout from Jerry Jones in his new stadium for playing a relatively manageable opponent in a likely TV Match-up.

    2015 -- We need two non-conference home games, and one of them needs to be a solid team because otherwise the home schedule will suck. With the escalating ticket and contribution prices, which will no doubt be higher in 2015, fans are going to want a better home schedule than AU, SC, ARK, UK, a team like UAB and a Div I-AA squad. I just don't see TCU providing any incremental sizzle.

    In my opinion, the only way a TCU series makes sense to me is if it's designed as a two for one in 2013 (home), 2014 (New Cowboys Stadium) and 2015 (home). But even then it just doesn't blow my skirt up.
My preference:
  • Book something more local - I'm dropping $750-900 on this ASU trip (flight, hotel, booze, ticket, etc), and that's fine because it's a big game. But TCU ain't worth $700 to me. There's an entire ACC full of teams in drivable distances.

  • The Georgia Dome -- Take a list to the Atlanta Sports Council of about 15 top tier teams that everyone respects and say "We have X, Y and Z dates in 2014 and 2016 available. Get us a game in the Dome against one of these teams and $3 million. We'll be there." It's worth a shot.
But a home and home game to TCU? Blah. I could deal with a 2 for 1, but it just seems like kind of a wasted opportunity now that the Georgia Dome is an option.

See Also:
-- Football Scheduling Complexities - Georgia Sports Blog
-- Future UGA Schedules - SicEmDawgs.com
-- New Dallas Cowboys Stadium

PWD

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's a no-win situation. They're typically not good enough to be considered a quality win, but they're typically just good enough to run the risk of being upset.

As far as I'm concerned, we should not be scheduling home-and-homes against non-BCS schools. Non-BCS schools give us a two-for-one, or they don't get to play us. Simple.

Anonymous said...

2013 was where Appalachian State was moved to....Is that game gone?

blackertai said...

I don't know, TCU is a historically good program. It'd be like having BYU on the schedule. I doubt we'd take a hit perception-wise for playing them, since they're usually the class of the MWC, as well.

Anonymous said...

TCU is a waste of a game, IMO. I'm a nerd about all time records, so I think we should play teams that we have losing records against. There are several tiers of teams in that category that would provide range for different schedule strengths. These are the non-SEC D-IA teams we have losing or tied records against:

Wake Forrest
Maryland
Boston College
WVU
Pitt
Syracuse
Penn State
Michigan
Texas
Texas AM
Nebraska
Rice
Houston
Navy
Stanford
Southern Cal

That's a good range of teams, ranging from easily beatable breather games to middle tier early season games to national spotlight huge games. We could schedule them accordingly depending on the SEC lineup of the year. Problem solved.

Anonymous said...

Planning for away games based on a team's current reputation is kind of silly. Lets take 2013 as a target year since that is 5 years in the future. In 2003 (5 years ago) these teams won 10 or more games: Miami, FSU, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas State, and Washington State. The following teams finished with records below .500: Penn State, BYU, Kansas, Alabama, Rutgers, Wake Forest, and UCLA.

The best line of the post was about how you are willing to shell out almost a grand to go see ASU. But as far as playing TCU at new Cowboys stadium... meh.

I think games in Boulder and Eugene are really cool because the destination sounds just as much fun as the game. Do Stillwater and Louisville stir that same type of interest? Not really.

Also, I'm not for two neutral site regular season games in the same year. Athens is a great gameday environment and I hate losing game days in the Classic City.

Anonymous said...

How does all this change if the agreement in Jax isn't renewed. If we start going home and home with FL that could really throw a wrench in these future schedules.

Anonymous said...

Could not disagree with this more. We will probably never be playing in the crappy GA Dome except in the SEC title game (or a Chicken Sandwich Bowl), and the allure of playing in the world's nicest stadium in TEXAS is the draw. Football matters so much more there than it does in say 'Zona, and we recruit Texas some and could much more with exposure. Playing out of area is 100% beneficial. If you must miss a game in Dallas because of financial reasons, flip on the tube. Dawgs fans will be there in mass. Big D is fun. TCU has 10 wins most years and is slowly but surely gaining credibility and has a lot of football history. The 2 for 1 is a good idea, but I want to see us play in Tex regardless. Watch the Texas Stadium video at dallascowboys.com before y'all decide - it has a retractable roof, open air end zone walls and a monitor that runs from the 20 to the 20.

Unknown said...

Matt,

Georgia will play in Jax for a very, very, very long time.

The political backlash from South Georgia and the Coastal Communities related to pulling out of the Florida game would be too much for a sitting UGA president and Athletic Director to deal with.

Besides...no one will want to leave if we get back to winning about 50% of the time.

Anonymous said...

PWD,
I'm from Savannah, and I don't think it would upset people as much as it's been made out. I guess further down around Brunswick it might be a bigger impact, but I've always been of the opinion that it's not UGA's responsibility to keep alive South GA's economy. Obviously with us winning this year, the noise about leaving Jax is way down. But, if Heaven forbid we slip into losing two or three for every win down there, I wouldn't be surprised if it came up again. Don't get wrong, I love the game in Jax(2 hr. drive home!!), but I don't, and will never, consider it a true neutral site (we're 10-17 during my lifetime, and went 0-5 while I was in school), so it wouldn't really break my heart to go home and home.

Hobnail_Boot said...

For all the talk about our schedule this year, 2009 looks tougher.

Anonymous said...

If Arthur Blank has his way, the Falcons won't be in the GA Dome by the mid-2010's.

Anonymous said...

I'm all for playing more home-and-aways with teams in the recruiting hotbeds of Texas and California. We recruit really strong under Coach Richt but it'd be nice to cherry pick those elite 5-star Texas and California athletes in order to complement our Georgia/southeastern regional signing classes.

We need to build brand awareness from the far edge of the SEC West all the way over to Pac 10 territory. More looks on national TV due to high profile OCC match-ups with folks in those parts will make some of their elite high school players realize there are other options besides just Oklahoma, Ohio State, or Southern Cal if they want to play ball at a high level yet aren't enamoured with the cultures found in Norman, Columbus, or Pasadena.

The Classic City: a place to get an education, find a drop dead gorgeous wife, become a responsible member of society under a God-fearing coach, and possibly get drafted into the NFL.
We got a coach that has us geared to play big time ball and I say, "bring it" while welcoming our cross-country brethren with open arms.

JasonC said...

Just curious, how does 2010 look for us? Stafford and Moreno won't be there, but we should have a stud OL, some RBs and WRs, plus some defensive talent. Despite not being able to predict the future, that looks like a much more reasonable schedule for a MNC run.

Anonymous said...

Didn't TCU just beat OU last year or year before last? It's one of those two. It should be a series that garners some respect. At the same time, it's another one of those games where we'll get murdered by the press if we lose one of them.

I love the idea of playing in the new stadium in Texas. That's a state where we should try to play in the next 10 years or so. After all, our QB is from there and there are TX kids that love to come to UGA. Wouldn't hurt to show some of their athletes up close why UGA is a place for them to come and win.

But I do admit to being a series history nerd as anon #3 puts it. And I love his idea of scheduling teams that we have a losing record against. That's not a long list but does provide some interesting matchups, and matchups that would put us in areas that we've had success recruiting in the past.

#1 for me would be Pitt. Man, do we owe them or what? Maryland and BC would also be two that would make sense for us. MD because its near the OH/PA area that a lot UGA All Americans have come from. And BC because the eastern media would make a big deal about it.

Now that UGA is going to places like Tempe and Eugene, that still isn't good enough for some. So maybe a series with an OU or a USC would make sense - but only in years where we don't have LSU and Bama on the schedule already.

 
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