Great Article in Mobile Paper

[uga_alum_93]

What a brilliant columnist. I wish his column ran on this side of the Chattahoochee too;)

Georgia has top athletic program
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Whether the measure of success is national championships, excellence in the sport that fans care most about or bottom-line accounting, University of Georgia athletics director Damon Evans oversees the elite athletic department in the Southeastern Conference.

The Bulldogs finished $23.9 million in the black last year -- the largest operating profit of any public college program in the country -- and are the reigning national champions in men's golf, men's indoor tennis and gymnastics. Of course, profit margins and birdies aren't the first things that come to mind when a fan in the SEC is asked this question: "How satisfied are you right now with your athletic program?"

Most fans in SEC country would immediately think about how their football team is faring. In the case of Georgia, the Bulldogs won the most recent SEC Championship Game to remain among the top programs in the league.

Georgia is not as good in men's basketball and baseball -- the next two sports in terms of importance to most SEC fans -- but their current position atop SEC football and their three national championships make the Bulldogs the envy of the SEC.

Need proof? OK, take a look at how each conference team measures in football, men's basketball, baseball and their best non-revenue sport. For Auburn that sport would be the national championship men's and women's swimming and diving teams; for Arkansas the championship track team; and for Alabama it would be the third-place gymnastics team, although the Tide softball team could soon eclipse that finish.

Assuming that most fans in the SEC care as much about football as the other sports combined, let's assign 50 percent of the program's overall success rate to football. Thirty percent will be based on men's basketball, 10 percent on baseball and 10 percent on a program's best non-revenue sport.

Remember, these subjective rankings aren't based on how good a program has been in the past, but the current status of the program. That's how current national champion Florida is ahead of Kentucky in basketball, even though the Wildcats have been far superior for decades. The rankings also take into account how a program has performed recently against its chief rivals, since those games certainly carry a lot of weight when it comes to fan satisfaction.

-- FOOTBALL: 1. Georgia, 2. LSU, 3. Auburn, 4. Alabama, 5. Florida, 6. South Carolina, 7. Tennessee, 8. Arkansas, 9. Ole Miss, 10. Mississippi State, 11. Vanderbilt, 12. Kentucky.

-- BASKETBALL: 1. Florida, 2. LSU, 3. Tennessee, 4. Alabama, 5. Kentucky, 6. Arkansas, 7. South Carolina, 8. Vanderbilt, 9. Georgia, 10. Mississippi State, 11. Auburn, 12. Ole Miss.

-- BASEBALL: 1. Alabama, 2. South Carolina, 3. Kentucky, 4. Florida, 5. Ole Miss, 6. Arkansas, 7. Vanderbilt, 8. Mississippi State, 9. Tennessee, 10. LSU, 11. Auburn, 12. Georgia.

-- BEST NON-REVENUE SPORT: 1. (tie) Auburn, Georgia, Arkansas, 4. Tennessee, 5. LSU, 6. Florida, 7. Alabama, 8. South Carolina, 9. Ole Miss, 10. Kentucky, 11. Mississippi State, 12. Vanderbilt.

Add five bonus points for every national championship won -- because, let's face it, there's great pride in winning a national championship, even if you didn't know your program had a cross-country team -- and here are the final rankings:

1. Georgia, 2. LSU, 3. Florida, 4. Alabama, 5. Auburn, 6. Tennessee, 7. Arkansas, 8. South Carolina, 9. Kentucky, 10. Ole Miss, 11. Vanderbilt, 12. Mississippi State.

There are, of course, other ways to determine which SEC program is the most successful. But winning the conference football championship, a few other national championships and making a pile of money while doing it is as good an indicator as any.

Contact Sports Editor Randy Kennedy at:

rkennedy@press-register.com

251-219-5689.

His column appears on Sundays in the Press-Register.




© 2006 The Mobile Register
© 2006 al.com All Rights Reserved

[Bburton86]

I said it's great to be a Georgia Bulldog.

[geechee]

Yes it is.

[Bamabelle in georgia]

This poor columnist must be a deranged sicko uga grad from the herschel era that has somehow wound up in Mobile.

Did I say he was a sicko?

[geechee]

No,I don't think you mentioned that :whistle:

[Bamabelle in georgia]

ok. I'll mention it.
He's a sicko.

[geechee]

If he's a sicko, I guess I should discount this great article he wrote on Tide football. I thought he had done a great job summing up 'Bama's season but you can't believe a sicko can ya.

10-win streak continues at Alabama
Randy Kennedy

Brodie Croyle, DeMeco Ryans, Freddie Roach and their senior teammates will leave Alabama fresh off a second 10-win season. Given the Tide's tumultuous ride through NCAA sanctions and three head coaches, that may seem to be a remarkable feat.

But the real surprise would be if the Tide seniors had not carried on the tradition of reaching double-digit wins.

Since 1985, every four-year Alabama player has been a part of at least one 10-win season. That 20-year run is even more impressive compared to the other programs around the SEC.

At half of the league schools -- Florida, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt and South Carolina -- the players who just completed their eligibility never won 10 games in a single season.

At Auburn, you have to go back only to 2003 to find a class that never won 10 games. It's 2002 at Ole Miss, 2001 at Georgia and 2000 at LSU.

The only league school that rivals Alabama's streak is Tennessee, which had 11 straight classes complete their eligibility without winning 10 games leading up to 1986, but has not had a class leave with such a dubious distinction since.

The Alabama streak has been contributed to by six different head coaches, but not that head coach. Mike Shula just recorded his first 10-win season in his third campaign. It took Dennis Franchione two seasons, Mike DuBose three, Gene Stallings two, Bill Curry three and Ray Perkins four. Most telling, perhaps, is that Paul Bryant is the most recent Alabama coach not to be part of the current streak.

However, dating back to Bryant's return to Tuscaloosa in 1958, the only classes to leave without at least one 10-win season were in 1985 (which finished with a 9-2-1 record), 1984 and 1970.

As a side note, Bryant won 10 games in his fourth season, Red Drew in his sixth, Frank Thomas in his fourth, Wallace Wade in his third and Xen Scott in his second.

The point is not that Alabama football has reached incredible highs over the last 100 years. A different team and a different school wins the national championship every year and is suddenly compared unrealistically to the greatest teams of all-time.

The point is that the current state of Alabama is about as bad as it gets, which clearly isn't that bad.

Because of NCAA penalties, coaching instability and simply not being as good as the best teams around the country in most years, the Tide has won only one national championship since their current players and recruits were born. But over the same period, Alabama has reached the benchmark of 10 wins in a season at least once every four years.

What is generally considered a rebuilding period for the Alabama program would be the glory days for most schools.

But that's the attitude that develops when cheering for 10 wins in a season seems as natural to Tide fans as yelling Roll Tide.

[GeauxTo]

Didn't you mean that this mis-guided UGA fan turned sports writer BELONGS in Chattahoochee?

:laugh:

[uga_alum_93]

ok. I'll mention it.
He's a sicko.

Sicko? Don't you think that's kind of harsh? I would use that term for a sexual predator not a columnist.

[GatorNation]

I said it's great to be a Georgia Bulldog.

An argument can certainly be made for other SEC teams, too. Take UF, for example: last year's runner-up in the CWS, New Year's Day Bowl win (Outback) over Iowa, and a national title in basketball (did I mention I was there???? :D ). Yeah, uga beats us in football with the SEC win and a Sugar Bowl appearance--even with the loss to WVU--but, IMO, the national title in b-ball has to be worth more than any of the little tennis and golfing titles this guy is talking about here and at least just as much--if not more--than a conference title in football.

I think we can all agree that it's so much more difficult to win a national championship in one of the "big three" sports (i.e., football, basketball, and baseball...in that order) than it is to win anything else.

[geechee]

I think we can all agree that it's so much more difficult to win a national championship in one of the "big three" sports (i.e., football, basketball, and baseball...in that order) than it is to win anything else.

Sorry GN but, I don't agree with that. I think every single sport in the NCAA is just as competitive and in its own way, is just as tough to win a title.