On to the Goal

Like a brushfire on a windy day, the terrible idea of moving The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party away from Jacksonville continues to flare up. Most recently, it was Georgia Coach Mark Richt fanning the flames at a booster club meeting in Columbus, Ga:

“When people ask me the question, ‘Do you really think [Jacksonville] is a neutral site?’, I say, ‘No, it’s not neutral,’ ” Richt said. “When you play in the state of Florida every year — we fly, they drive; it’s hotter for us, it’s cooler for them.”

It’s easy to dismiss that as mere whining and it’s perhaps even a bit understandable given how poorly the last 19 years in Jacksonville have gone for Georgia relative to the previous two decades. Georgia athletic director Damon Evans struck a much more neutral, cautious tone (as per his job requirements) and even offered some comfort in saying he’s “not an excuse guy” and will not overreact to Georgia’s struggles in Jacksonville.

But the fact that we’re even talking about this indicates that there is some pressure in the Georgia camp to move the game north at least once every four years. According to former Georgia AD and coach Vince Dooley’s comments in the Atlanta Business Chronicle, they wouldn’t even need to consult Florida if they wished to play the game elsewhere every other year once the present contract expires next season. I’m assuming this stems from the fact that the game is a conference-counter that both teams are required to face one another. In the year’s when it’s Georgia’s “home” game, they technically get to decide where it’s played.

So why would Georgia not want to play it in Atlanta or even Athens in even-numbered years? For the same reason that everything else in college football happens: Money.

Each team makes $3.8  million every two years under the current format in Jacksonville, McGarrity said, yet a typical home-and-home pays about $2 million to the home team. That means every other year, either Florida or Georgia would have to miss out on the money. “Even in conservative dollars, you’re missing $1.5 million over a two-year period,” McGarrity said. “That money can do each institution a lot of good.”

Based on those figures, it makes absolutely no sense to play the games in Gainesville and Athens. Even for athletic departments with budgets in the high eight-figures, $750,000 a year is a lot of money — probably too much money to simply walk away. A move to the Georgia Dome may be easier to stomach economically, but a new problem comes into play there — Jacksonville’s stadium is much bigger.

With the benefit of temporary seating, 84,649 fans attended last year’s Cocktail Party as opposed to just 75,892 fans at the 2008 SEC Championship Game in Atlanta. that’s a difference of 8,757.  Even if the revenue gap can be closed by raising ticket prices, I can’t imagine that Florida (or Georgia, for that matter) is keen on suddenly losing seats for more than 4,000 potential donors.

So while Georgia may have the ultimate say over where its home games are played, I agree with Dr. Saturday that a change is not likely. Tradition is nice, but it can be sacrificed in the name of the almighty dollar. What doesn’t make sense, however, is to trash more than seven decades of tradition for less money, more pissed-off alumni or a nasty combination of both.

Highly suspect rumors are swirling that former Gator quarterback Cam Newton may be interested in transferring to Tennessee. The rumor appears to have started over on Losers With Socks on May 6 and has picked up a bit of steam on message boards and other random Internet backwaters since. Fowler threw some cold water on it with today’s post, indicating that “a source close to Newton” says talks have occurred decision won’t be made until the end of summer. Mississippi State

The only “journalist-y” report we have seems to indicate this is far from a done deal, so until further notice I’m going with my gut and assuming that Newton’s enduring legacy with Florida and Tennessee fans will be this:

The Shane Matthews story? I don’t hear anything… LA LA LA LA LA LA

I’m still ignoring the bizarre Urban Meyer vs. Shane Matthews “don’t criticize the team” story, even though it STILL refuses to die. I’m giving it one more week and if it’s still percolating, I’ll address the story and, ironically, become part of the problem. Until then, Orson Swindle gives you everything you need and more. Fine work, sir.

How the 2006 and 2008 Gators stack up against the rest of the Aughts

ATL blogger Birds & Braves took a look at how each champion this decade stacks up based on metrics such as yards per play gained and allowed. It’s all interesting stuff, particularly the part about the 2008 Gators being so dominant from this statistical perspective.

Barry Tramel contradicts himself. Universe implodes.

I go out of my way not to unnecessarily rip sports columnists, but Barry Tramel of the Daily Oklahoman has always rubbed me the wrong way, mainly for how douchey he was during the whole OKC-NBA-franchise-jacking saga. Now he is defending the Big 12’s bizarre tiebreaker by going after the SEC’s beloved formula, and this aggression will not stand, man:

ESPN voices rallied around the Southeastern Conference tiebreaker, which goes by the BCS unless the top two teams are within five spots of each other, which then reverts to head-to-head. Quantum physics are more easily explained.

Uhm, no they aren’t. In fact, you just explained the SEC’s three-way tiebreaker in perfect detail. In one sentence. It really is that simple. So to Tramel, the Big 12 formula would go from being “a fine tiebreak” to “quantum physics” with the addition of one extra step. Yes, I know he’s a columnist and not a newsgatherer but this is why people think we don’t need newspapers. I’m a journa-nerd at heart, but man, that’s hard to defend.

UPDATE: No, the SEC tiebreaker is not fair, either. I think it’s slightly better, but that’s not the point. It may be unfair, but it’s not quantum physics.

Warning: Serious, somewhat somber post.

When the words “Tennessee recruit” and “violent crime” appear in close proximity to one another, the knee-jerk reaction of any Florida fan is usually to crack jokes and finger-point at every available opportunity. Sometimes it’s justified — they don’t call it the Fulmer Cup for nothing. But this time, just this once, let’s reserve judgment. Details here.

Joel from Rocky Top Talk has a very unique perspective on the matter. I share his discomfort and that’s why I’m not including any actual information here. Spencer Hall (yes, under his real name) tackles the issue in an eloquent and well-thought-out fashion. Frankly,  this just isn’t one to joke about. There is now and will forever be plenty of other fodder to use against Lane Kiffin and the Vols. I hope that the young man continues to stay on the right track and succeed in life on all but the third Saturday in September. Above all, I hope that everyone involved in the issue finds peace.

I’ve been posting a lot about “Hated Rivals” lately, which is a pretty good indication that spring practice really, really needs to start. Mercifully, it begins tomorrow and will be accompanied by the requisite spring preview column.

But until that time, let’s just continue to sip on H (formerly known as Haterade). Today’s target: Da U, who is feeling spurned by Florida’s refusal to extend the series on a biennial basis after 2013. Try to act surprised.

But really, no, this is not a surprise. That’s not to say that it won’t illicit cries that the Gators are “ducking” the Hurricanes. The comments from Miami fans on the Herald story follow along in that vein, particularly commenter “Bkchero” who referred to the UF braintrust as, “Clown Prince Foley and his erotic lover Machen.” Most, if not all, are accepting this bit of news as incontrovertible proof that the ‘Canes are on the verge of something big. Recruiting aplomb aside, that is very much open for debate, but bonus points for enthusiasm.

Herr Swindle tackled the issue with the type of wit about which I can only dream, but (sadly) this isn’t even about Cock Sandwiches or badassmofo NED. To me, this is about two very obvious facts:

1) Florida doesn’t want to play Miami

2) Florida doesn’t need to play Miami

The reason behind the “want” part is easy to figure out — money. The Gators already have one permanent in-state rival, Florida State. Florida plays the ‘Noles in Gainesville in odd numbered years, when the Gators’ “home” conference game against Georgia is played in Jacksonville (assuming nobody screws that up). So in any given year, the Gators play only four out of nine permanent opponents at Ben Hill Griffin.

That leaves three remaining open slots on the schedule, and Florida doesn’t want to give up even one of them on a regular basis. The loss of revenue would be too great. So it may not be entertaining to watch the Gators thrash a I-AA school, but when the announced attendance is 90,374, it makes financial sense. And when something makes financial sense, it almost always happens.

And that leads us to the second point. Florida doesn’t need to play Miami. Arrogant though the point may be, Florida already plays annual games against FSU, Georgia, Tennessee and LSU, for starters. Even in fallow years, those names, along with those of rotating SEC opponents, carry enough cachet to give the appearance of playing a “strong” schedule. In good years, such a slate is a gauntlet of pain. Cyclical ups and downs aside, none of that is likely to change.

It’s not so much that Florida is “scared” to play Da U, though a loss to one of the ‘Canes more badassed outfits would be undeniably damaging. Rather, Florida doesn’t have much to gain from playing Miami in most years. The rest of the schedule is typically strong enough to withstand a regular-season loss (as evidenced by 1996, 2006 and 2008), and the losses both real (revenue) and potential (on-field) just don’t seem to justify it.

Football populists like The Wiz of Odds rail against the lack of quality non-conference matchups, and on some levels I agree with him. As a college football fan, I wish there were better games on every week. But as a Gator fan, I understand why there aren’t.

(And if none of that was very convincing, would you want to run the risk of bumping into this guy at a tailgate every four years? No? Thank you.)

Gator fans don’t need a reason to hate Georgia. The loathing is built in. It’s an intractable component of the state of nature. There’s absolutely no logic to it and, in many ways, that’s the point.

Need? No. Need is not the right word here.

It just… helps to have a flashpoint, a single issue that, when brought to mind, will cause a Gator fan to unleash 364 days of pent-up animosity in a constant torrent of expletives punctuated only by the occasional “Richt.”

Last year, that gnawing issue was “the endzone dance.” This year, it’s merely the worst idea ever: Moving the Cocktail Party to the Georgia Dome.

Gary Stokan, president of the Atlanta Sports Council, tells the Chronicle that in conversations with Georgia Athletic Director Damon Evans and Coach Mark Richt, “both of them expressed a high level of interest.”

Oh really? You’re telling me that Georgia wants to play a neutral-site game in the Georgia Dome? I’m effing stunned.

Orson Swindle provides the litany of things that make this an unbelievably horrendous idea midway through today’s Curious Index, and I agree with every single one of them. I’d also add the following: If the two schools are really trying to end the annual ritual of reckless, alcohol-fueled behavior (and I hope they’re not), compressing a sprawling outdoor tailgate into the tight quarters of the CNN Center atrium is not a good way to do it. Not unless you plan on dividing the building into two sectors with lines of riot police in between, like a Scottish soccer game.

The bottom-line, however, is this:

1) This almost certainly will not happen because Florida would never, ever go for it.

2) It’s still a damn good reason to hate Georgia.

UPDATE: Hold off on the “never, ever” comment. Ben Volin of the Palm Beach Post wrote a piece today that indicated the “home” team for each year’s game has its druthers about where a game is played. That makes sense since these are league games that the two teams must play. It’s not like Florida could say, “Fine, we’re not playing you at all” like I envisioned earlier. I sincerely hope that tradition wins out here.

In my line of work, I talk on the phone with people from all over the country. It never ceases to amaze me how many people don’t understand the concept of time zones.When explaining to someone that the East Coast is three hours ahead of the West Coast, I often wonder: Who the hell are these people? What do they do in their spare time? Are they always this dumb?

Well, today I learned the answer to all three questions. The common word in each? “Warchant.”

Here’s the link, but just in case they remove the thread, here’s an excerpt:

Fan #1: we play at 9:55 so thats 8:55 eastern

Fan #2: i think you are confused. Our game is at 9:55 eastern.

Fan #3: Yeah Boise is in the western time zone so it’s 9:55 eastern, 6:55 in Boise.

Fan #4: It absolutely AMAZES me how people do not understand the concept of time and time zones. Hell you learn that in SECOND GRADE!

Boise is in the MOUNTAIN TIME ZONE (not western, there is actually no western time zone). If it is at 9:55 in the East, it would be 8:55 in the Central, 7:55 in the Mountain, and 6:55 in the Pacific. This is elementary skills here people.

Well, at least one of them got it.

The award for “Most Bizarre Recruiting Story — 2009″ should not be thrown around lightly. Consider this was  a year in which:

• David Oku, the nation’s number one all-purpose back met a girl on a recruiting trip to Nebraska and subsequently moved to Lincoln to be close to her. Only, you know, he wasn’t really interested in playing for the Cornhuskers.
• Jamarkus McFarland, a top recruit at defensive tackle, was profiled in-depth in The New York Times and either totally did or totally didn’t write an English paper about Texas girls pulling their pants down at parties.
• Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin swiped a top-100 recruit away from our own Gators, bragged about it, erroneously accused Florida of cheating and was given the harshest rebuke I can ever recall a conference commissioner issuing to one of his own coaches.

No, 2009 was not  a year for any of your usual ticky-tack recruiting shennanigans. You had to bring it hard to top such high-quality ridiculousness, and no one brought more fire than Bryce Brown, the nation’s number-one running back recruit out of Wichita, KS.

Photo via InsidetheU.com

The speculation about where the talented runner would land finally ended today, when Brown signed with Tennessee. Brown initially “committed” to Miami but re-opened the bidding to everyone from Oregon to, uh, University of Phoenix? (Just for the record, Florida never really went after him.)

Even this far after signing day, none of that would be considered too unusual by contemporary. But those probably the most normal parts of this story.

Enter: Brian Butler, recruiting adviser.

The above link points to a fairly lengthy article by Pete Thamel and Thayer Evans (yes, him again) of The Times that is well worth reading if you haven’t already. If you’re in need of cliffnotes, the Good Doctor obliges, natch.

Overall, the Bryce Brown/Brian Butler saga is too much of a sprawling mess to get into here. I’m not getting paid by the word. Or at all. But here are some of the most absurd highlights:

• Butler, who essentially ran Brown’s recruiting, pleaded guilty in 1997 to a felony fraud charge
• He initially attempted to charge information seekers $9.99 a month for updates on Brown’s recruitment
• He suggested, in earnest, that Brown might skip college entirely to go to the CFL, “If they were talking about the right kind of money…” Nevermind that the CFL salary cap is $4.2 million per team and that running backs are of far less relative value in the pass-happy, 12-man-per-side league.
• He apparently fabricated offers out of thin air to drum up interest in other clients of his.
• He is already being investigated by the NCAA.

I’m serious when I say those are just highlights. There’s way more insane stuff that went on. But the end result is that Brown is a Vol. So what does that mean?

Most Tennessee fans, such as Clay Travis, who is anywhere from ecstatic to “three Heismans, God is a Vol, best running back in collegiate football history” (skip ahead to about the 5:50 mark). Of course, such bluster demands an immediate equal and opposite reaction from the Florida message boards, which all resonated with four consistent themes:

1. The Vols will still suck next year
2. Brown will arrive with baggage and leave with UT on probation
3. Kiffin is a dirty cheater and this proves it
4. GATORBAIT WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Points one and four are valid, at least for 2009. Unless Brown is literally the second-coming of Herschel Walker or is planning on playing quarterback, the Vols are still left to rely on Jonathan Crompton’s arm. And unless he makes some sort of unprecedented leap from a truly atrocious 2008, Tennessee is almost certainly doomed to another year of offensive mediocrity. And that could be putting it kindly. At least for the upcoming season, this doesn’t move the needle much in the SEC East.

But this signing has interesting implications over the long-term, and that’s where points two and three come in.

Brown certainly does arrive with baggage, particularly if Butler is planning lurking around Knoxville. It’s important to note, however, that most of the shenanigans related to Brown were occurring through a proxy — the kid himself so far hasn’t done anything too out of the ordinary. It’s never good to have the NCAA sniffing around before the letter of intent was even signed, but despite the unsavory overtones, we have no evidence that even suggests that Brown has done anything wrong. Ditto for Kiffin and the Tennessee staff. Not even remotely.

In fact, the only think that this tells us about Kiffykins is that he’s either extremely lucky or one hell of a recruiter. Based on his track record, I hate to say that I’m leaning toward the latter. Pete Carrol, the winningest active coach by percentage (.844 to Urban Meyer’s .814), did not make Kiffin his recruiting coordinator at USC for no reason. The addition of Brown makes Tennessee’s 2009 class a consensus top-10 haul, which is especially impressive considering a regime change took place in the middle of recruiting season.

Of course, none of this amounts to anything if Kiffin can’t coach, and rest assured the entire league will be gunning for him. Hard.

As for Brown, who knows. He could be great. He could end up being a total bust or, worse, a total bust who brings all sorts of NCAA heat down on Tennessee. Based on the absurd expectations that have already been placed on him, he’ll almost certainly be labeled as “disappointing” somewhere along the line.

Naturally, I’ll be rooting for a disaster of epic proportions, short of anything that lands anyone destitute or dead. But even if Brown never plays a down for the Vols, it appears that there may be more to Kiffin, et al. than mere bluster. If anything, their recruiting success just serves as another reminder that in the SEC, you can never afford to rest on your laurels.