Georgia Proves You Can Teach an Old Dawg New Tricks

Damon Evans is a genius amongst his peers, a man amid boys, a riding lawnmower surrounded by push mowers. 

While other Athletic Directors in the SEC whine and complain about how tough the conference is, how easy the Pac-10 is, and how their respective schools have to schedule “cupcake” out of conference games, the University of Georgia AD went outside conventional thinking and set a precedent that other SEC schools should line up and follow.

The article “The Dawg Genius Behind the Georgia/Arizona State Game” refers to the 2008 UGA schedule and the foresight of the Georgia Athletic Department.  The reasoning behind the article is the “Genius” idea of Georgia’s long-term insight into how they could influence the thought process of the voters and affect the BCS rankings through clever scheduling changes.

In the 10 years since the BCS commenced in 1998, there have been nine different national champions from five separate conferences.  Four of the champions have been from the SEC, while the other six trophies are divided amongst the ACC (two), Big 12 (two), Big Ten (one), and Pac-10 (one). 

After watching an undefeated Auburn team play an out of conference schedule that included such cupcake teams as Louisiana-Monroe, The Citadel, and Louisiana Tech, and not make the BCS Championship game in 2004, what did the Georgia AD do?  He learned what not to do and how to influence the pollsters by taking UGA football outside of the Southeast.

**Side Note** It seems as if almost every non-conference team that Auburn plays against sounds something like the South Central Louisiana State University that Bobby Boucher plays for in The Waterboy.

Really, Auburn?  If you can’t schedule any teams that are more challenging than the SCLSU Mud Dogs, then maybe the voters were right in leaving you out of the championship game.

Other than the Big Ten, Damon Evans has attempted to schedule games with each of the other conferences represented by all of the past BCS champions. 

While the reputation of the ACC has taken a harder hit than Charlie Weis' knee this season, Georgia Tech always plays Georgia tough, and Clemson will be added to the slate in 2013 and 2014.

The Big 12 is on the schedule too, as UGA travels to Stillwater to take on Oklahoma State during the 2009 season, and in 2010 the Dawgs visit an improving Colorado program.

Not to leave out the West Coast, the Bulldogs have four games against Pac-10 teams in the coming years, as they battle Arizona State in 2008 and 2009 before heading up to Autzen Stadium to play Oregon in 2015 and hosting the Ducks in 2016.

The Dawgs even have a home and home in 2011 and 2012 with Louisville of the upstart Big East.

UGA Football’s Non-Conference Opponents in the Coming Seasons

2008: Arizona State (away), Central Michigan (home), Georgia Southern (home), Georgia Tech (home)

2009: Arizona State (home), Oklahoma St. (away), Tennessee Tech (home), Georgia Tech (away)

*2010: Colorado (away), Georgia Tech (home), open, open

*2011: Louisville (home), Coastal Carolina (home), Georgia Tech (away), open

*2012: Louisville (away), Georgia Tech (home), open, open

*2013: Clemson (away), Appalachian State (home), Georgia Tech (away), open

*2014: Clemson (home), Georgia Tech (home), open, open

*2015: Oregon (away), Georgia Tech (away), open, open

*2016: Oregon (home), Georgia Tech (home), open, open

* Signifies that this is the tentative schedule.

This variety of early season matchups with power conference teams allows the University of Georgia the opportunity to have “statement” games.

The same teams have been (for the most part) in the top 10 of the polls or in the upper echelon of performance for the past six to eight years, so this scheduling allows voters the opportunity to make a direct comparison of how one contender handles an opponent, as opposed to how Georgia manages against the same team.

If the Dawgs go in and beat the Sun Devils in 2008 by 35 points, and the University of Southern California comes in later in the year and wins a close game, this single degree of separation will force the pollsters to take notice and reward the Bulldogs for their ease of victory.

Along the same lines, if Georgia can beat up on Oklahoma State next year and Oklahoma struggles with the Cowboys, it will allow the voters to make an informed decision, should it come down to these two teams, about who they should choose to put in the BCS Championship Game.

While a schedule that is set up like UGA’s for the next few years could include a loss they would not have endured while playing against the Mud Dogs of SCLSU, the opportunities that will present themselves from Damon Evans' novel thinking could be the difference between being an also-ran and receiving a BCS Championship bid.