Staggering the uat, Georgia games

[toddc 13,194]

Gus wants to stagger the two biggest rivalry games so we don’t play both away from Jordan Hare Stadium in the same year, and I think it’s been a hot topic on this forum in the past. Makes sense to me! Because it would benefit Auburn it’ll never happen!

https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/auburn-football/gus-malzahn-expresses-desire-see-auburn-stagger-annual-rivalry-games-alabama-georgia/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

[AUsince72 11,084]

By the title I thought you were going to ask us to relive unpleasant memories.

As for the schedule, wasn't there some quirk one or two years where the thUga game was playing back-to-back years in the same stadium?  World-Cup in Athens or something like that?

Not sure why they didn't just fix it after that...

[toddc 13,194]

2 minutes ago, AUsince72 said:

By the title I thought you were going to ask us to relive unpleasant memories.

As for the schedule, wasn't there some quirk one or two years where the thUga game was playing back-to-back years in the same stadium?  World-Cup in Athens or something like that?

Not sure why they didn't just fix it after that...

I’m not usually one to look at past negatives, but I couldn’t remember why it got changed. There are others way more in the know that will answer that I hope!

[Tiger 8,818]

I'm 100% on board with playing UGA in Athens this coming season and next season just to balance things out. Would that really affect things beyond the 2 schools participating? I guess it could throw home/away balance off for a year or so but is that such a big deal?

[lionheartkc 6,150]

1 hour ago, AUsince72 said:

By the title I thought you were going to ask us to relive unpleasant memories.

I was expecting the exact same thing. Glad it was not what I expected but something I wanted instead.

[Mikey 16,576]

Alternating home and home with those two rivals had gone on forever. It was changed to accommodate the schedule when A&M and Mizzou were added to the conference. Since both UGA and UAT have to love the current setup I don't see it ever changing back to the way it historically was.

The mystery is why AU agreed to this in the first place? There had to be some other options.

[steeleagle 2,945]

1 hour ago, toddc said:

I’m not usually one to look at past negatives, but I couldn’t remember why it got changed. There are others way more in the know that will answer that I hope!

IT was when the SEC added Missouri and TAM to the conference that the schedules had to be redone, and somehow to keep GA as one of our every year games, the schedule was changed causing us to play them and Alabama both at home and away in alternating years.

JJ seems to think that Auburn had 2 options, lose GA as an every year opponent or agree to playing them and Alabama both at home and away in the same years, to satisfy the SEC scheduling needs.

 

[lionheartkc 6,150]

3 minutes ago, Mikey said:

The mystery is why AU agreed to this in the first place? There had to be some other options.

I'm sure it had something to do with maintaining a certain number of home and away games for each team, each year and therefor someone had to take the hit and who better than the rivals of the school who owns the conference.

[Tiger 8,818]

Let's just scrap the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry and make a new one with Vanderbilt and call it the Deep South's Youngest Rivalry. Any takers???? I can live with playing Vandy and Bama away 2 weeks in a row.

[McLoofus 35,182]

When playing both of them away seems like a viable reason for us losing either game, I'll complain. As things stand, our team needs to improve. 

[steeleagle 2,945]

1 minute ago, lionheartkc said:

I'm sure it had something to do with maintaining a certain number of home and away games for each team, each year and therefor someone had to take the hit and who better than the rivals of the school who owns the conference.

If i remember right, GA had to come to AU 2 consecutive years and play after the realignment. Nothing was done to reciprocate that making AU go to GA 2 years in a row. So JJ must have made the concession to play ALabama and GA home in the same year, away in the same year, to keep GA on our schedule and play them at AU 2 years in a row.

[McLoofus 35,182]

1 minute ago, Tiger said:

Let's just scrap the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry and make a new one with Vanderbilt and call it the Deep South's Youngest Rivalry. Any takers???? I can live with playing Vandy and Bama away 2 weeks in a row.

I got you.

*furiously types petition dot org into browser*

[AUwent 3,748]

It's complicated, but in order to avoid playing nine games, each team plays two games with the opposite division. To preserve the two cross-division games that really "matter," there can only be one rotating opponent each year. The problem is that one division has to have all the permanent cross games a year to allow for playing certain teams. Put it like this: suppose, keeping everything else the same, that in a given year some permanent cross games were played at the west team and some at the east team. For instance, Auburn at Georgia at Florida at LSU. That would completely prevent Auburn from playing Florida.

The best way to alleviate this problem, as I have said sooo many times before, is to GET RID OF DIVISIONS (especially in the Big Ten). Do the three permanent, two rotating pairs of five teams every two years format (replace "even years" with 2012 and 13, 2016 and 17, 2020 and 21, etc, and "odd years" with 2014 and 15, 2018 and 19, 2022 and 23, etc). I actually made an alternate SEC schedule starting in 2012 using that format, which included DSOR being in Auburn on even years.

The problem is, however, that it might have created a rather...unfavorable...timeline. For instance, if we use this timeline, we likely do not catch a lot of the breaks in '13 (ESPECIALLY the Prayer--does anyone think we could've made that play in Athens?). That said, I think because of that, the breaks go our way in '14. The problem is that a divisionless conference means the two teams with the best conference record play (ranking is tiebreaker), which means we might've had to play Alabama twice. So potentially we come up with one less SEC title. Also, Georgia's conference schedule gets a bit tougher, meaning they likely would have fired Richt a year early. I think this also leads to one less net win over Georgia--since Smart is in his second year in 2016 despite it being at home, and it being away in 2017.

(I recognize a lot of the preceding paragraph is a stretch, it's just an exercise in what possibly could've been.)

Another option is to go to nine games, but ugh--in a way, that's even worse than playing UA and UG away on even years.

The last option is to just abolish permanent cross-division games, but the PTBs at UA, AU, UG and UT (to whom I think this change would be particularly advantageous) would fight this tooth and nail. Even though cross division teams see each other just twice in seven years, it's a helluva lot better than the way it is now.

To me, the current realignment was a bit of a damper.

[Gowebb11 9,314]

A lot of great rivalries have ended, all with strong protests, and things have gone on just fine. Nebraska-Oklahoma, Texas-TAMU, to name a couple. I’m ready to get rid of UGA or stagger them and compete for more titles. 

[lionheartkc 6,150]

27 minutes ago, Gowebb11 said:

A lot of great rivalries have ended, all with strong protests, and things have gone on just fine. Nebraska-Oklahoma, Texas-TAMU, to name a couple. I’m ready to get rid of UGA or stagger them and compete for more titles. 

I want to stagger them. Losing the rivalry wouldn't be good, in my opinion, with Tennessee looking to come back. If we switched to a Vandy, Missouri or Kentucky, then everyone and their brother would hold it against us because bama would suddenly have the harder SEC schedule.

[toddc 13,194]

I see my title was changed on the OP! I get it might have been a little hard to read, but I put uat and ug in lowercase on purpose.lol 

[AUBwins 10,074]

I would be fine just moving the Georgia game to the first half of the year.  It is only truly noticeable because we essentially play them back to back to possible back again like last year. 

[Zeek 16,649]

1 hour ago, AUBwins said:

I would be fine just moving the Georgia game to the first half of the year.  It is only truly noticeable because we essentially play them back to back to possible back again like last year. 

This. Agreed completely.

[Mikey 16,576]

4 hours ago, AUBwins said:

I would be fine just moving the Georgia game to the first half of the year.  It is only truly noticeable because we essentially play them back to back to possible back again like last year. 

They won't agree to that unless Tech gets tough once again. Then they'll talk.

[keesler 5,924]

14 hours ago, AUBwins said:

I would be fine just moving the Georgia game to the first half of the year.  It is only truly noticeable because we essentially play them back to back to possible back again like last year. 

UGA won't agree to to anything to help Auburn or make their path to a championship easier.  With that said, improvements in roster management could do wonders when those injuries and fatigue pile up at the end of the season.  But I feel sure after 3 yrs of enduring serious injuries to many starters, the staff knows how to plan for the future.

[lionheartkc 6,150]

27 minutes ago, keesler said:

But I feel sure after 3 yrs of enduring serious injuries to many starters, the staff knows how to plan for the future.

I feel sure they know that they need to. Still waiting to see if they know how to, outside of recruiting quality depth.

[keesler 5,924]

20 minutes ago, lionheartkc said:

I feel sure they know that they need to. Still waiting to see if they know how to, outside of recruiting quality depth.

I wonder if there is some notion or a train of thought within the staff where they feel like they have to boost up certain players stats in order to recruit well and draw attention to that specific position group? 

I really have no idea here, just throwing darts.

I've just never been able to understand running the wheels off a RB against the cupcakes on the schedule vs spreading the wealth and building up the backups at every possible opportunity.  Then if and when the workhorse gets nicked up or suffers fatigue at the end of the season the backups are ready for their shot on the track.  

[Win4AU 4,052]

I’ve been beating this drum for awhile.  UGA had to play here two years in a row so let’s return the favor.  Unless we can have the turds visit Auburn 2 years in a row then Athens>Tuscaloosa.  

[McLoofus 35,182]

7 minutes ago, keesler said:

I wonder if there is some notion or a train of thought within the staff where they feel like they have to boost up certain players stats in order to recruit well and draw attention to that specific position group? 

I really have no idea here, just throwing darts.

I've just never been able to understand running the wheels off a RB against the cupcakes on the schedule vs spreading the wealth and building up the backups at every possible opportunity.  Then if and when the workhorse gets nicked up or suffers fatigue at the end of the season the backups are ready for their shot on the track.  

My gut tells me that a lot of what happened last season was a "reward" for KJ, or Heisman campaign-related, or something of that nature. 

It bit us 2 seasons in a row. Gus sometimes has to endure a tough lesson twice before it sinks in. No clear-cut bell cow this season. I have measured optimism. 

PS- So far, having both of these games at home has helped us tremendously twice, and I can't blame them both being on the road for any of the 0-fers. We've mostly lost to great bama teams we wouldn't have beaten anyways and bad uga teams that we should've beaten on any field. 

[Tiger 8,818]

19 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

My gut tells me that a lot of what happened last season was a "reward" for KJ, or Heisman campaign-related, or something of that nature. 

It bit us 2 seasons in a row. Gus sometimes has to endure a tough lesson twice before it sinks in. No clear-cut bell cow this season. I have measured optimism. 

PS- So far, having both of these games at home has helped us tremendously twice, and I can't blame them both being on the road for any of the 0-fers. We've mostly lost to great bama teams we wouldn't have beaten anyways and bad uga teams that we should've beaten on any field. 

I hope you're right about the learning a lesson after being burned twice. I also hope his huge extension didn't lessen the gravity of learning this lesson. There's only one way to find out though. Hopefully we lean a little more on Stidham's arm and the WR talent we have been stacking up to where we don't have to worry about trotting a ghost of our RB out there