UGA blog finds new home
Morning all. As I’ve said a couple of times this week, we’re converting this blog over to a WordPress platform and it will be a permanent move the first of next week.
Those of you who are regulars probably know that I’m not what you’d call techno-wizard when it comes to these things. But from what I understand the technology offered in this new format should make the blogging and commenting experience better for all. Of course, I’ll be learning as we go along, too. But I’m hoping to provide more pictures and video and things like that which should bring the blog more to life.
Of course, this blog is nothing without all you guys so I want to heartily invite (read: beg) you to come over to the new site by CLICKING HERE ON THE NEW ADDRESS and save it in your browsers. As of Monday, Feb. 23rd, this will be the permanent home of the UGA blog you so love or, in the case of some of you, love to loathe. If you’d prefer to copy and paste or just memorize, the new address is: http://blogs.ajc.com/uga-sports-blog/.
See at the new place!
AJC > Sports > UGA > Blog > Archives > 2006 > November > 08
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
Exploring bowl options
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The bowl picture has become very cloudy for Georgia. Mark Richt has emphatically said he will go to any bowl that will have him. Now it is time to try and figure out what bowl will have Georgia.
The SEC has eight spots in bowls. Nine teams might go to bowls if two get into the BCS. Here is what it looks like right now:
Sugar: Florida or SEC West team (I’m hedging my bets and saying this would be Auburn.)
Orange: Florida or SEC West team (see above.)
Capital One: LSU.
Outback: Tennessee.
Cotton: Arkansas.
Chick-fil-A: Kentucky or Georgia.
Music City: Kentucky or Georgia.
Liberty: South Carolina.
Shreveport: Alabama.
But what happens if Tennessee beats Arkansas, Alabama beats Auburn, LSU beats Arkansas and then Florida beats the SEC West opponent in the Georgia Dome? Well, for starters, that means only one SEC team will to a BCS bowl. Meaning everybody slides down a peg.
And there are most likely going to be three teams with 6-6 records— South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama. So what it is going to come down to is which team’s fans are going to travel.
Alabama will travel to Shreveport if only to hold up “Fire Mike Shula” signs. And because it is a 400-mile trip from Tuscaloosa to Shreveport, hotel stays are a given (getting a room is another thing. I’ve tried to get one in Shreveport, it is getting full already).
So who is more likely to take fans to Memphis — Georgia or South Carolina?
That is what bowl organizers are going to be trying to figure out. Past bowls will be scrutinized by organizers. Attendance at the Independence Bowl last year, when South Carolina went, was just 41,000. There were more than 49,000 there a couple of years earlier when Nebraska played Ole Miss.
Plus, South Carolina fans may not want to travel to Memphis after watching their team drop two of its last three games.
Now on to Georgia. The Bulldog fans may have been interested in going to Nashville in Richt’s first year — promise on the horizon and all that. But Georgia could lose its last two games and that is not exactly going to make Ma and Pa Bulldog want to gas up the SUV and head to Memphis in December.
There is one other bowl to keep an eye on. The San Diego County bowl has an at-large selection. If the above scenario plays out, Georgia or South Carolina might be a big get for that game. A big-name program from a power conference could lend some legitimacy to an upstart bowl.
