It’s Memorial Day, a great American tradition. Travel, barbecue, the Indy 500 and rising gasoline prices.
So, I want to discuss another tradition, one that happens every November in the Southeast and one that leaves thousands of college football fans with a large hangover: the Georgia-Florida football game. (Or Florida-Georgia, depending on your allegiance. And many Florida newspapers insist on this, since it’s always played in Jacksonville, technically a neutral site.)
The debate has risen in recent years on whether to move the game out of the northeast Florida city, generally from Bulldogs coach Mark Richt. But a recent report in Atlanta saw Bulldogs AD Damon Evans chiming in, and refusing to say that the game would stay in Jacksonville. The current contract runs through 2010.
Obviously, the Bulldogs are blaming their lack of success since 1990 (just three wins) on the game’s location. This is very debatable. In 25 years as Georgia’s head coach, Vince Dooley beat Florida 17 times. It became mental: the Gators simply did not think they could beat the Bulldogs there.
Now, the psychological advantage is with Florida, thanks to former coach Steve Spurrier’s repeated run of lopsided victories over mediocre Bulldog teams in the ’90s. So desperate are the Bulldogs for an advantage that they ordered an infamous on-field celebration after their first touchdown in 2007. (Uh, coach, that’s self-defeating. If you resort to that, then you are merely reinforcing the Gators’ whammy.)
Still, times have changed, and I agree that the tradition needs tweaking, wins and losses aside. (Disclosure: I’m a UGA alumnus.)
Jacksonville’s original appeal was in part because it catered to UGA grads and fans in south Georgia. But now, word has it that UGA is more about Atlanta than the rest of the state, thanks to changed admission requirements, curriculum and scholarships. Many in middle and south Georgia now head for Georgia Southern, Florida, FSU and Auburn, weakening the fan base in that area.
Also, Jacksonville itself has changed. The city now has an NFL team and has hosted a Super Bowl. The Gators-Bulldogs clash no longer is a prime event. Why let it become stale?
There’s some talk of playing the game in Atlanta’s Georgia Dome, but to me, that still does not have the sizzle of home-and-home. College football is all about emotion, and seeing on-campus excitement in Gainesville and Athens would do wonders for fans of both teams.
However, the one undeniable factor: television. The “outdoor cocktail party” reputation and late-season tradition appeal to the networks. And in recent years, Florida almost always has been a national title contender. That gets ratings. Would it be the same otherwise?
But baseball, among the most stubborn of sports, has adoped the designated hitter rule and allows the All Star Game, an exhibition, to determine home-field advantage for the World Series. So I hope that Evans and the Bulldogs are willing to tweak things and spice up an already great rivalry.
