Fan Day Scheduled for August 5th

Open practice, followed by a short autograph session.

Fan Day Schedule – Saturday, August 5, 2017
12 p.m.                 Ticket distribution for photos with Uga X
2:30 p.m.              Gates Open – Gates 2, 4, 6 and 9
3 p.m.                   Uga photos in Athletic Box on North Side (Ticket holders must by in line by 3:30)    
3:30-5:30 p.m.     Open Practice
5:45 p.m.              Player autographs on the field (45 minutes)
                             Defense – South sideline
                             Offense – North sideline
                             Coach Smart in East End Zone
6:30 p.m.              Event Concludes

Also, directly from the website: "In case of inclement weather, the Fan Day portion of the afternoon would be cancelled.  Please check georgiadogs.com for more details on the day of the event."

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Georgia at Auburn game time announced

CBS Noon game. Kind of a weird week with CBS and ESPN on the hook for one of the 3:30 games.

Full slate:

DATE	TIME (ET)	GAME	NETWORK
Sat., Nov. 14	12:00 p.m.	North Texas at Tennessee	SEC Network
Sat., Nov. 14	12:00 p.m.	Georgia at Auburn	CBS
Sat., Nov. 14	12:00 p.m.	Florida at South Carolina	ESPN or ESPN2
Sat., Nov. 14	3:30 p.m. or 7:15 p.m.	Arkansas at LSU	CBS or ESPN or ESPN2
Sat., Nov. 14	3:30 p.m. or 7:15 p.m.	Alabama at Mississippi State	CBS or ESPN or ESPN2
Sat., Nov. 14	4:00 p.m.	Kentucky at Vanderbilt	SEC Network
Sat., Nov. 14	7:00 p.m.	Western Carolina at Texas A&M	ESPNU
Sat., Nov. 14	7:30 p.m.	Brigham Young at Missouri (Kansas City)	SEC Network

Auburn tickets.

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SEC Season Schedule

Compliments of @UGAKerri.

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Georgia to play UCLA in home and home series

I was hoping for USC....

We play in Pasadena at the Rose Bowl in August 2025, with the Bruins coming to Athens in September 2026. It's too early to book flights, but I'm pretty excited about getting to go to LA to play.

Give credit where it is due, McGarity has been busy shoring up the OOC schedule. For my money, this is a far sight better than UNC in the Dome.

TD

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UGA to face UNC at Dome in 2016

We’re excited to announce that @FootballUGA will open the 2016 season vs @TarHeelFootball in the #CFAKickoff #GoDawgs pic.twitter.com/RaMHCiSzfi
— Georgia Bulldogs (@UGAAthletics) February 19, 2015

The good news is that there is no way we'll face them in the Music City Bowl in 2016. I'm cool with the game, as it means UGA will have one fewer shitty SunBelt opponents noon SECNetwork kickoffs at home in 2016. Besides, it looks like the game could be settling on some sort of rotation involving SEC and ACC teams, so getting in the rotation has upsides.

So our 2016 OOC schedule is:
UNC - Georgia Dome - Sept. 3rd
Nichols State - Athens - Sept. 10th
University of Louisiana - Athens - Nov. 19
Georgia Tech - Athens - Nov. 26

I guess it would have been cooler if it would be the first game in the new Blank Dome. What are your thoughts?
TD

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See also: PWD on how this matchup almost happened in 2010.

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Georgia's 2015 football schedule finalized

Released tonight:

Sept. 5: Louisiana-Monroe
Sept. 12: at Vanderbilt
Sept. 19: South Carolina
Sept. 26: Southern
Oct. 3: Alabama
Oct. 10: at Tennessee
Oct. 17: Missouri
Oct. 24: Open date
Oct. 31: Florida
Nov. 7: Kentucky
Nov. 14: at Auburn
Nov. 21: Georgia Southern
Nov. 28: at Georgia Tech

Going to be weird leading off the SEC slate with Vandy, but I like the open date still being in front of Florida. 

TD

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2014 SEC Helmet Schedule

Download at your leisure. And thanks to @UGAKerri.
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It's official: Georgia to play Notre Dame in 2017, 2019

This is beautiful. Just beautiful.

I think this means two things:

1. The SEC won't be going to nine games before the end of the current SEC scheduling cycle.
2. McGarity isn't afraid to look outside of traditional matchups for OOC games.

There was also a rumor of a third game to be played at an off campus site not in Indiana or Atlanta. I guess you could call Chicago part of that, too. New York/Boston would be nearly a home game for the Irish, as would Dublin (Ireland, not Laurens County), but you can bet your sweet ass I'd go to Ireland for that.

Better tell South Bend to stock up on bourbon. And remind them bourbon ain't that Canadian crap.
TD

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Georgia vs. Notre Dame home and home announcement coming soon?

Buck Belue thinks so..

Sounds like UGA has struck a deal w/ Notre Dame! Big anno coming next 24-48. Irish in Sanford Stadium, 'Dawgs in S. Bend = awesome opp!
— buck belue (@buckbelue8) June 25, 2014

If this happens, I'm gonna be so fired up. Going to South Bend for a game is a bucket list item. I hope it is late enough for snow, so people will shut up about warm weather teams in the cold weather blah blah blah.

TD

UPDATE: Chip Towers is reporting the same, but it is all based on Belue's tweet and interview of Mike Cavan.

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SEC releases full conference schedule for next ? years

Coach Mike Bobo will lead the Dawgs into College Station in 2024 against new head coach Gus Malzahn's (after a very non-productive four seasons coaching the Dallas Cowboys) Fighting Texas Aggies.

Or whatever. I give this until 2017 before we are at 9 games.

Every SEC team's rotating opponent through 2025: pic.twitter.com/xSVQoC4eef
— SB Nation CFB (@SBNationCFB) May 19, 2014

Quick and dirty of UGA schedule through 2023:

#Dawgs Future schedule of UGA's SEC West rotating opponents... #DawgsOnTop #GATA pic.twitter.com/BbU1qJMOav
— GATA Dawgs (@BassinDawg) May 19, 2014

Thoughts?
TD

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Future SEC Football Schedule

Georgia-Auburn and Third Saturday in October is preserved for now. SEC sticks with eight games, but require teams to play a non-conference opponent from the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten or Pac-12. Continuing the 6-1-1 preserves all of the cross division rivals while encouraging all the schools to play a bit tougher schedule. Unless you are Missouri, then you just schedule Kansas, Indiana and Illinois on a regular basis.

My favorite part of this is Texas still won't play Texas A&M, but A&M has every reason to schedule Oklahoma, OSU, and Baylor now.

The upside with sticking at eight conference games is we aren't completely foreclosed from playing other power conference teams not called Georgia Tech. The downside is that I'll be retired the next time we get to go to The Grove.

TD

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UGA Athletics generates nearly $100M in revenue

Good news, right?

There was just over $2.2M surplus to bring the accumulated reserve up to $73.9M. Football brought in over $62M in revenue, with nearly equal amounts of direct football revenue, ticket contributions, and TV revenue from the SEC and NCAA. Long term construction debt fell $9M.

It also looks like the Foley project will reach the $5M needed to get Athletics off their $7M needed to complete the Foley face lift by February. The number is $2M higher than it was at project unveiling.  It'd be interesting to see where the rest of the $35M in revenue came from.

So, we'll see how that money gets spent. Or if it actually does. Because Tennessee.

Oh, I'll also have more about this later, but I'm guessing there is some room for revenue growth in other sports with improved results, because you can bet some of that ticket and ticket contribution revenue will fall with the coming tasty cupcake parade we are likely to see in football and basketball (and baseball, for that matter).

TD
See Also:
- What does Bret Bielma's contract tell us about Butts-Mehre? (Blutarsky)

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SEC Conference Schedules released

Full SEC Conference schedule here. Texas A&M will visit South Carolina as the debut sporting event for the SEC Network on Thursday, August 28th. Florida really gets the short end with LSU and Alabama from the West.

Georgia's full schedule:

Aug. 30 - Clemson
Sept. 6 - OPEN
Sept. 13 - at South Carolina
Oct. 20 - Troy
Sept. 27 - Tennessee
Oct. 4 - Vanderbilt
Oct. 11 - at Missouri
Oct. 18 - at Arkansas
Oct. 25 - OPEN
Nov. 1 - vs. Florida (Jacksonville)
Nov. 8 - at Kentucky
Nov. 15 - Auburn
Nov. 22 - Charleston Southern
Nov 29 - Georgia Tech

Upsides? Keep the open date before Florida. Absent a huge turn around by Auburn and Arkansas, the only way Georgia's schedule would be better would be to play Mississippi State twice. Open date between Clemson and South Carolina isn't terrible, although I'd prefer the rest later in the season.

Downside? Florida has an open date before Georgia. Back to back road trips to Pago Pago and The Maldives. 

This is supposed to be part of a two year schedule, that is supposed to be part of a larger 12 year schedule. Presumably this means we'll have Auburn as the only West road game in 2015, with Arkansas coming to Athens.

Any thoughts?
TD


-Full SEC Schedules for all 14 teams here. (SB Nation)

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Official SEC matrix schedule

From @ugakerri, a Damn Good Dawg.

Click to embiggen.
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Suggestion for fixing the SEC schedule

The ongoing debate around the SEC schedule for 2014 and beyond revolves around a few coaches' concerns about the unbalanced schedule created by the permanent cross-division rival. To be blunt, LSU is tired of playing Florida while others in the West get a relative freebie with whomever. South Carolina is a bit miffed at having to play Texas A&M every year, too.

I've thought the schedule thing would be worked out by now. You did to. So is the hold up adding two teams (looking less likely), going to 9 games, or some sort of compromise revolving around 14 teams?

For my money, it is working a compromise around 14 teams and the 9 game schedule. Let me be upfront about my position: I think we should do whatever it takes to preserve 1)the conference, then 2) rivalries. I also am beginning to think we should play 9 conference games, even though that means one fewer home SEC games every other year.

Being reasonable, LSU has legitimate scheduling reasons for wanting to look at the process of SEC conference scheduling. I think they've been reasonable about the 9 game schedule, something that is growing on me. I also think there is a solution out there that I've hinted around, that And the Valley Shook blogger Billy Gomila put pretty succinctly:

Hell, for all I care, give teams an option regarding the locked inter-division game, and adjust the scheduling rotation around that. You'd still have some schedule imbalance, but at least then the schools would be making that choice for themselves, rather than having it dictated to them. 

And that's the key word in this whole debate: choice. A program might not be able to choose the opponents on a conference schedule, but it's not too much to ask that those opponents aren't dictated by the choices of other programs.

Basically, if Alabama/Tennessee and Georgia/Auburn want to keep playing, good on them. Let'em. That gives the other 10 teams opportunities to play each other in a round robin way or whatever. Essentially, those four teams are opting out of the opportunity to play the other division's opponents more often.

The SEC should look at the long term health of the conference. I'd even consider some sort of shuffling of the division, despite the current imbalance that'd create (think Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Florida, Tennesse, Kentucky and South Carolina in the East). With the exception of Sewannee leaving after eight years, the conference was the same for the first 30 years, until Georgia Tech and Tulane chickened out. It would remain the same for nearly 30 more until the addition of Arkansas and South Carolina.

At the conference founding, the football powers were Alabama, Tulane, Georgia Tech and LSU. In the 40's it was Georgia and Georgia Tech. In the 50s, it was Mississippi and Tennessee. In the 60s, it was Mississippi and Alabama. In the 70s, it was Alabama. In the 80s, it was Georgia and Auburn. In the 90s, it was Florida and Tennessee. Since 2000, it has been Florida, LSU, Alabama, Georgia and Auburn, with a scattering of the other schools putting together great seasons.

My point is a strong conference is built on the teams playing each other in compelling match ups. Georgia vs. Auburn is more compelling, to me and from a marketing stand point, due to how long they've been playing. If LSU doesn't want that kind of long term cross-division rivalry, that only hurts them in the long run, from my perspective.

Billy made another good point:

The faster we can stop pretending there's any nobility in a sports scheduling debate, the faster we can all talk about this like adults. 

He's right about that. There is no nobility in it. The money grab has meant money wins over rivalry discussions. I get that LSU doesn't like having two the East's big three on their schedule just because 'it is their' turn. I get South Carolina didn't like it when they got the short end of the stick last year. I get they don't care about the rivalries. I think they should some, but I don't think they are so sacrosanct that they should cause the conference to come apart.

If this were, say 1989, LSU current schedule would be far easier than any other West team, save Arkansas. Georgia and Florida were middling at best. Tennessee and Auburn were the only teams to threaten Alabama. Of course, LSU went 4-7 in 1989. And that is what I'd think everyone should remember in this: the sun doesn't shine on the same dog's ass every day. When there is a rotation that ends up with your team playing teams that are enjoying their heydays, that is just the way it is. So if we go to rotation, they let's go to it and be done with the discussion. That is also an adult way to look at things.

Unless, of course we want to discuss relegation, yearly competitively balanced schedules, and crap that the NFL has done to make schedules 'more fair.' Which I don't.

TD

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SEC nine game conference schedules?

The biggest problem I have with a nine game conference schedule is that it doesn't allow a team to do much to improve their potential strength of schedule. As a fan of an SEC school, that doesn't seem too relevant. Now.

What about if we were in the early 70's or late 80s? SEC football was relatively bad then. It also isn't hard to imagine a nine game schedule where the SEC has three teams decimated by probation, say Auburn, Ole Miss and Texas A&M; five teams that are downright terrible, say Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi State; and four more that are mediocre, at best, say South Carolina, Florida, Vandy, and Georgia.

So you really think a one loss SEC champion in that scenario actually gets into a four game playoff over the B1.5G champion, the one loss loser of that game, any other undefeated conference champion or a one loss Notre Dame?

I don't think they would. Putting aside the obvious loss of a compelling match up, that is a bigger concern moving to a nine game schedule. I think Barrett Sallee's is too optimistic in keeping marquee match-ups (or adding those that will never ever happen, in Missouri's case). If the SEC goes to a nine game schedule, you can kiss any other OOC game with a major conference team other than Georgia Tech good bye.

TD

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Scheduling Stuff - Alabama Trip Delayed?

Reading Blutarsky's snark on scheduling led me to this nugget:

 Some potential matchups for 2013 would include, Alabama at Georgia, Arkansas at Florida, Auburn at Kentucky, LSU at Missouri, Ole Miss at Tennessee, Mississippi State at South Carolina and Texas A&M at Vanderbilt. Those, of course, are merely guesses at this point, based on openings and length of time between recent games. There will not be home-and-home series in consecutive years for rotating opponents as there were up through 2011. However, seeing a team once every six year isn’t mathematically feasible either. The more plausible scenario is that it will be either five or seven years between games. I’ll spare you the details, but it would likely be 2020 before any of the 2013 rotating opponents meet again, and 2025 before they return to the site of next year’s games.

Alabama in Athens next year, then, if that's right, we won't go back to Tuscaloosa until 2025.

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The SEC Schedule: Is 8 or 9 Games the Real Question?

The ADs didn't make any decisions. After all the debate, in the media and on the Internet, the ADs didn't make any decisions. While it seems there are some likely scenarios, there is one I keep thinking about. One that isn't some namby-pamby 'ohh, we don't want to play such tough schedules' solution (I'm talking to you Scott Stricklin).

So, what will happen in the SEC? Strictly on votes, It'll be very close. There are four schools that will go to 9 games in a heart beat, just to keep the two rivalry games (UGA, Alabama, UT and Auburn).  There are at least four schools that are absolutely dead set against any game that makes their football season harder (Mississippi State, Vandy, Kentucky and Ole Miss). That leaves six schools that will end up casting the deciding votes. Of those schools, I'd wager at least two of them (LSU and South Carolina) are ok with 9 game schedules, as long as they could be convinced there is a strong enough revenue bump. So where do Arkansas, Texas A&M, Missouri and Florida fall?

The other issue is figuring out what to do about revenue inequities over half the schools hosting five home conference games and half only hosting four. I am sure there are some accounting guys smart enough to figure that out.

Two other things that are rolling around in my head: 1) Will we see more expansion/what will further expansion do? 2) What if the current divisions are remade?

I don't know about that first question. I don't think the SEC will go any further until it becomes obvious there is a looming 'super conference' showdown. If they would do so in a year, why not just do it now and save some headaches.

As for the second? I can see scenarios that move Missouri and another team from the East to the West, with the two Alabama schools moving East. The most obvious choice of that East team would be Kentucky, as they aren't likely to care if they get routinely pummeled by Auburn, LSU, Alabama play a slightly different set of teams every year in football. I don't think it'll be Vanderbilt, as they care about having a shot at finally beating Tennessee.

As far as other schools that might be on the list? How about Georgia or Florida? I don't see what moving Georgia over would do to help the conundrum of The Deep South's Oldest Rivalry. But then there is Florida. Florida could move over. Georgia-Florida would have to be kept, but that is easier to do than keeping two or more 'permanent' rivalries.  The only sticking point there would be the Florida-Tennessee game, but my guess is Foley wouldn't mind trading that for keeping LSU on the schedule.

PWD thinks Missouri doesn't care as long as they get Arkansas and TAMU every year, something their AD has hinted at. This scenario also makes that happen.  We go to 9 games, Georgia-Auburn, Alabama-Tennessee, Alabama-Auburn happen because they are divisional games. Find a way for Georgia-Florida to happen. Mizzu-Arkansas would have a new border war game. Mizzu-TAMU would have the 'Big 12 Championship' game. LSU-Florida would have to travel to each other's stadium every other year.

Am I the only one that thinks this is a possibility?
TD

PS. There is an added bonus of South Carolina fans decrying the loss of their 'traditional' rivalry with Florida.

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2012 UGA Football Schedule Rumors

The SEC announced today that they won't be finished with the 2012 football schedule until after Christmas. With that in mind, here's the UGA football schedule as I'm projecting based on the rumors and rumblings:

Week 1: Buffalo (home)
Week 2: Missouri (away)
Week 3: Florida Atlantic (home)
Week 4: Vanderbilt (home)
Week 5: Tennessee (home)
Week 6: South Carolina (away)
Week 7: Kentucky (away)
Week 8: BYE Week
Week 9: Florida (Jax)
Week 10: Alabama (home)
Week 11: Auburn (away)
Week 12: Georgia Southern (home)
Week 13: Georgia Tech (home)

There's a chance we could see Bama at home in Week 8 before the Cocktail Party with the bye week after Florida, but that's not what I heard earlier this week. This is all still fluid to some degree so you could see even more changes. However, this is the latest as of yesterday's rumor mill.

The games that are either confirmed or darn close to being confirmed are Buffalo, Missouri, FAU, Georgia Southern and Georgia Tech. Given that Ole Miss appears to be playing Florida and Missouri from the SEC East next year, it looks very likely that Georgia does get Bama...at home.

UPDATE: Various other media outlets are saying that UGA will play Ole Miss at home in Week 10 instead of Alabama. That would be great, but I'm struggling with the conflicting Ole Miss rumors which have them playing:

Missouri and Vandy
or Florida and Vandy
or Missouri and Florida
or UGA and Vandy

I had projected earlier this offseason that we'd get Ole Miss and Aubrn as our Western Teams. I would prefer to have been right then....than the post above.

PWD

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2012 Schedule Rumor: UGA vs. Bama in Athens

The SEC is a near mortal lock to operate with an 8 game SEC schedule in 2012. As I've said numerous times, this will be temporary before the SEC ultimate goes to a 9 game schedule in 2-4 years.

With that in mind, we had been projecting that UGA would drop a road game at Bama from the 2012 UGA schedule in favor of a road game at Missouri. With the new 6-1-1 divisional rotation, this seemed to make the most sense and have the smallest impact on everyone involved. In that scenario, UGA's SEC West opponents would be Auburn (road) and Ole Miss (home).

However, we've hit a snag. PowerMizzou is reporting that Missouri's SEC West schedule will include Ole Miss (road) and Texas A&M (home). This means, Ole Miss is off the table to come to Athens.

Billy Lucci of TexasAgs.com is reporting that Texas A&M's SEC East opponents will be Missouri (permanent) and Florida. Mr. SEC is reporting that Tennessee's SEC West opponents will be Bama (permanent) and Mississippi State next year. (He also theorizes on some other match-ups which aren't a done deal).

If the rumors above are correct, Ole Miss, Miss State and Texas A&M are off the table as rotational opponents for UGA next year. That only leaves Alabama, Arkansas and LSU as options. More than likely, it looks like Bama will be coming to Athens.

However, Bama doesn't have an SEC road game to give. That means some other SEC West opponent will be swapping home/away dates with Bama next year. I project that type of movement is already in the cards for the MSU vs. UK game (which will likely stay in Lexington in 2012). As well as the Vandy vs. Ole Miss game which will likely be in Nashville again this year.

More than likely, it would be Arkansas going back to Tuscaloosa in 2012. Again...this all assumes the first 3 leaks are correct.

What do you think about Bama coming to Athens in 2012?

PWD

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