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 > 2008 > April > 21
Monday, April 21, 2008
Equestrian today, football tomorrow?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In case you haven’t heard, Georgia’s equestrian team won the national championship this past Saturday in Waco, Texas. It was in our newspaper on Sunday but you might have missed it since the “report” was just one line in the middle of a bunch of dot-dot-dots underneath the heading “Etc.”
All of which brings me to our discussion topic today. How do those of you in the Bulldog Nation feel about the equestrian team winning the national championship? This is, after all, the program’s third title in the short time UGA has had one. So, clearly, the Bulldogs are a national power in this sport, as they are in football and tennis and golf and swimming and gymnastics, all of which Georgia has won multiple national titles.
But this is an area that we in the newspaper business have always struggled with, gauging the level of interest fans have in the “non-revenue” sports. Believe me, we know how you feel about football and basketball and baseball and, to some degree, gymnastics, because we get plenty of feedback from you on it and recognize the tremendous number of page views stories and reports on the aforementioned sports generate. It’s not so clear, though, regarding tennis and golf and swimming and certainly equestrian, the newest of the Bulldogs’ 21 sanctioned sports.
I, for one, think we underplayed the report on Saturday’s win. I mean, I knew it probably wouldn’t generate a huge amount of buzz or whatever among readers. But I thought the accomplishment itself warranted a little more attention, perhaps worthy of a headline and a few more details. Obviously the people that make such calls in our downtown Atlanta office thought differently.
We in the newspaper business have to be looking out for the masses and basing our decisions on the vast majority in our readership. I’m sure Tech and Tennessee and pro sports enthusiasts didn’t care at all to read that Georgia won a national championship in equestrian. But it’s a tough call. Certainly the dozens of student-athletes and their parents who toil all season and put their heart and soul into the sport thought it was a very big deal worthy of lots of news coverage. As always I guess the true answer lay somewhere in between.
But that’s what y’all are here for, right? To let us know how you feel about things and us in particular. So let me know what you think. Did you see that Georgia won the equestrian national championship? Did you care? Would you like to have known more about it? Was what we did sufficient or not enough? What would you have us do?
A couple of other things to think about. The men’s basketball team is having its postseason awards banquet tomorrow night at Athens Country Club. It’s open to the public. I’ll be there. Will any of you? I’ll blog about it Wednesday morning.
Also, it looks like the NCAA Gymnastics Championships, which are being hosted by UGA Thursday-Saturday, are a complete sellout. Suzanne Yoculan’s Gym Dogs are, of course, going for their fourth national championship in a row. Anybody coming to Athens for that?
Finally, the baseball team is really rolling. Has not lost an SEC game in 11 straight outings. Had to settle for a rare tie, 10-10, at LSU on Sunday because of league travel restrictions. Big lead in SEC. They have Kennesaw in Tuesday and head to Florida this weekend. Could another trip to Omaha be in store.
Y’all holler back. I’ll be checking in often.
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