Defending Georgia (Sort of…)

For the most part, I like SI.com’s Stewart Mandel. Writing about the impassioned sport of college football is a challenge, and everything you write inevitably leads to criticism from one group or another. So I empathize with Mandel when it comes to some of the condemnation he suffers for expressing his viewpoint.

In his recent “Mailbag”, however, I have to take make some factual disagreement with his post regarding the Georgia Bulldogs.

The salient part of the post (question and answer ) is as follows –

Q: For two years you've been dodging my question. When will Georgia coach Mark Richt start to feel the heat for never making the BCS title game, let alone bringing a national title to Athens? It seems like every year the Bulldogs are overhyped and every year they load the NFL, but it never translates to the BCS Championship Game. What gives?--Jeff, Atlanta


A: It's not that I've been dodging it -- I just can't believe anyone would ask that with a straight face. The last time I checked, Richt has produced four 10-win seasons and two SEC titles in a six-year span. That's two more titles, by the way, then Georgia had won in the previous 20 years. Perhaps you'd prefer to go back to Jim Donnan? Or Ray Goff?

Not that Jeff represents the average Georgia fan (I hope), but I lived in Atlanta for five years, and it always baffled me just how inflated a perception people have there of that program's place in the national landscape. Keep in mind, because of my age, I didn't start following college football until about the mid-'80s, so I missed the Herschel Walker glory years. To me, Georgia was just an average, top-20 type program for most of my life. But to listen to their fans, you'd think Georgia was a USC or Notre Dame. They've won two national titles in their entire history, the last one coming 27 years ago. The salient part of the post (question and answer ) is as follows –

Now I agree with Mandel that Georgia fans generally have an unreasonably elevated opinion of their team, and the question asker here is a perfect example.

No, the part I take exception with is the following –

But to listen to their fans, you'd think Georgia was a USC or Notre Dame.

Mandel states he didn’t start following college football until “about the mid-80’s” (which happens to coincide exactly with my experience).

And in fact, over the time period Mandel cites, you wouldn’t just “think” Georgia was a “USC or Notre Dame”, over that time period Georgia is exactly like a “USC or Notre Dame”.

Using 1985 (mid-80’s) to the present time period, the Georgia Bulldogs are 16th most winning program in Division I-A at 180-83-3.

In the same time period, Notre Dame is 15th at 180-83-2, while USC is 17th at 178-87-5.

15th, 16th, and 17th, with only a TIE separating Georgia and Notre Dame.

You can’t get any closer than that.

Now, I don’t believe in “National Championships” per se, but Notre Dame had one MNC in 1988, and Southern Cal one in 2004 (and a half, AP-type-MNC in 2003). Georgia’s last was in 1980.

Does a single MNC 8 years after Georgia’s make Notre Dame vastly superior, with the same win-loss record? Or Southern Cal, who has only really been successful over the cited time period in the last 5 years?

Interestingly when you look at the overall list of the most winning teams since 1985, the top five are –

1. Miami
2. FSU
3. Nebraska
4. Michigan
5. Tennessee

Florida is 6th.

But Mandel didn’t say “But to listen to their fans, you'd think Georgia was a Miami or Florida State”, which would have been the most appropriate teams for the time period he cites as relevant.

Hell, even saying “…you’d think Georgia was a Auburn (9th overall) or Texas A&M (13th overall)", would have been more accurate than USC or Notre Dame.

You can’t have it both ways Stuart – either you have only followed college football since the “mid-80’s”, in which case Georgia is every bit a “USC or Notre Dame”, or in citing those teams you are talking about a time period altogether different.

I know I shouldn’t be surprised by the longtime sports media affection for the faded glory of Notre Dame, or the modern shilling for the all things SoCal and Trojan.

But is getting your facts right too much to ask?.