UGA’s Morehead says Bulldogs will continue to schedule strong

University of Georgia president Jere Morehead won’t get into the specifics on how he or leaders of the other SEC member institutions voted on this past Sunday’s football scheduling legislation. But clearly he was pleased with the outcome.

According to several published reports, the SEC’s presidents and chancellors voted 10-4 to continue to play eight conference games in the 6-1-1 format that has been utilized since the league expanded to 14 teams two years ago. They also added a component that requires teams to schedule at least one game against an non-SEC opponent from one of the five “power conferences,” which are the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac 12 in addition to the SEC.

Georgia already meets that criteria with its annual game against in-state rival Georgia Tech, as does South Carolina with Clemson and Florida with Florida State. Now all the other league schools must follow that lead.

“Obviously I listened very closely to the thoughts of the athletic director and the head football coach on this issue and I think that it’s a good outcome not only for the SEC but for the University of Georgia. We’ve managed under this arrangement to keep an equal number of home and away conference games every year. It’s going to maximize our opportunity to play some important non-SEC opponents. That mix can remain a part of the scheduling. (Athletic Director) Greg (McGarity) is looking at some of those possibilities right now. We preserved the long-standing Auburn series, which I think most individuals in the Bulldog nation thought was important to do. So on balance I’m very happy with how the conference came out.”

There has been more than a little cynicism outside the Southeast about the SEC’s refusal to play nine conference games. Three of the other four power conferences adopted nine-game formats while the ACC has yet to vote on the scheduling format for its newly-expanded league. Morehead makes no apology for the league deciding to stick to its guns.

“The SEC has won seven out of the last eight national championships and played in all the national championship games, so I don’t know that we needed to make a number of changes at this point,” he said.

Morehead also said the league mandate to produce more competitive and compelling non-conference schedules is not just rhetoric. He pointed out that Georgia has played games against two or more major conferences, non-league opponents in seven of the last eight seasons (2012 was exception).