When Greg McGarity got the athletics director job at Georgia in August, one of the first things he did was reach out to Rob Mullens, the new athletics director at Oregon.
Georgia and Oregon had a signed contract to play each other in football in 2015 and 2016. But McGarity, who was replacing Damon Evans, didn't think it was a great idea.
“I texted (Mullens) and asked him if they’d have any interest in canceling. And he said absolutely, he was gonna call us,” McGarity said.
So with great mutual interest, Georgia and Oregon have agreed not to play each other as scheduled, McGarity and Georgia announced on Monday.
The impending expansion of the Pac-10, bringing Colorado and Utah aboard, is creating scheduling issues for teams in that conference. Oregon did not want to have to go to the other coast in 2016, any more than Georgia wanted to do the same the year before.
“It worked out great. Both schools just said this is something we don’t need to worry about anymore,” McGarity said.
“We’re getting back at 6 a.m. Sunday morning, and we’ve got a big game to prepare for the next day. It’d just be like you or me getting back. You’re not gonna sleep on the plane, I don’t care what you say. So you really lose a day. You’re gonna be worn out already.”
It also fits into McGarity’s main goal in football scheduling, which is getting seven home games a year. Three of the next six years, there can only be six home games, because contracts with Clemson and Louisville are locked in.
“Every now and then I think it’s important to play a rival, like Clemson. I think that’s a great series,” McGarity said. “But you don’t do that every year. I think you pick and choose. And every now and then you can get by with six home games. But that should really only be one time in a decade.”
McGarity said no replacement has been found yet for Oregon on the 2015 and 2016 schedules.
Monday, September 27, 2010
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17 comments:
Shoulda cancelled the Louisville series instead.
At the moment, given the woes we have, maybe we should schedule Austin Peay to replace Oregon.
This was a good idea. These are students going to class and palying football. They are not pros who can sleep in.
McGarity clearly sees the big picture.
Hey, we should be getting pretty good again by 2015/16. We'll be several years into our next coaching staff, which is when they are generally their most effective.
Smart move by McGarity. That bodes well for his wisdom in choosing our next set of coaches.
Too tough a flight. Unless you get a bye week the week following the game, but I would rather use the bye week before a big game rather than b/c you had a tough flight the week before.
While the games sound great to many fans, their are not good for the program in general. AU plays 8 home games almost every year.
UGA and UF can't do that, due to two factors...which if you don't know, you haven't been paying attention, and wouldn't understand if you were told.
I like the 7 home games idea. Good for the fans, the football team and the business community in Athens.
While I get all the reasons this is a smart move, the timing couldn't have been worse.
Good work McGarity.
Now all he needs to do is make sure that we have our BYE before the UF game EVERY YEAR.
If he does that he will definitely be seeing the big picture.
I totally understand the reasoning behind this, but as a 'west coast' dog - I was really looking forward to a trip to Autzen stadium...
No doubt it would suck for a Dawg stuck on the West Coast.
I don't see anything wrong with this timing. We certainly cannot beat Oregon. It's about time frankly we realized this.
Austin Peay ? I don't know about playing them instead. They've won 2 games already this year, over Cumberland and Tennessee Tech. Maybe we could schedule 1 of those 2 instead, eh ?
Tennessee State and Cumberland ?
How about Georgia State instead ?
Our players all could spend the night out on the town in Atlanta and really have a rip-roaring time, instead of having to worry about having to sleep on a 5 hour plane ride or not. 5 hours would give them plenty of time in downtown Atlanta playing Georgia State to have what ?
5 more arrested
Kids will be kids.
Let them have their fun.
Let's play Georgia State.
I'm in complete disagreement with most of you. While you offer some interesing ideas, look at many teams that play a long way from home. ND vs. USC yearly. Washington vs. Nebraska. Don't give me that our until 6 AM crap. Our football bunch are out all night all the time. Look at our recent arrest records. I'm paying an average of $130 per ticket. I can tolerate 2 wimp games a year, but I cannot tolerate more than that at that price. I want to see good competitive football. What the heck help did we get playing LaLa? An easy win that lulled us into thinking we were worth a crap. A partially empty stadium with a dead crowd and a team hot-dogging because they thought they were pretty good. If we want more home games can the Jacksonville fiasco and go home and home, but don't give us a dung pile to watch.
Aladawg
Perfect. Another reason to drop season tickets. Asking me to pay more money to watch one more crappy game. I would agree with this if we would go after Penn State, ND, Michigan or Ohio State every 4 years or so. Even Miami. And I agree the west coast trip is tough. But it still is bogus but that is what college football has become.
This was STUPID! Not a good idea for Georgia to wuss out and play more Idaho States' of the world and anyone who thinks this is a good idea is just as sissy as McGarity! We have not EARNED the right to play crappy games and win a BCS title. I think it's irresponsible for this to be written in such a way as to let Georgia off the hook for this.
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