Georgia-Arizona State: Historic game tonight
Georgia plays an historic football game tonight. The Bulldogs play at Arizona State, and here’s what’s monumental about it. Georgia got on an airplane to reach the desert.
What’s so special about that? Georgia hasn’t played a non-conference road game more than 80 miles from home since 1970.
Reader Bo Wright supplied some of this information in an email, and it’s fascinating stuff. In 1970, Georgia played at Tulane in New Orleans; every Georgia non-conference game since then has been at either Georgia Tech in Atlanta, 70 miles away, or Clemson in neighboring South Carolina, 78 miles from Athens.
This is of interest to Oklahoma State fans, since the Cowboys open the 2009 season by hosting Georgia, a return of the 2007 season opener in Athens, won 35-14 by Georgia.
Georgia, one of the magic names of college football, apparently is coming out of its provincialism, and OSU is the beneficiary.
This is not a knock on Georgia’s scheduling philosophy or prowess. Georgia annually plays Georgia Tech and Clemson, a 1-2 punch few schools these days are willing to tackle. Not that the Yellowjackets and Tigers are national powers, but both are respected, solid football programs and no pushover. Most schools these days aren’t willing to play two non-pushovers in non-conference, much less three, which is what Georgia would have to do to continue those long-time series plus get out of the South.
But still, Georgia’s provincialism is remarkable.
As stated, the Bulldogs haven’t played a non-conference road game more than 80 miles from home since Tulane in 1970. Georgia hasn’t played a regular-season game outside SEC territory since playing VMI in Roanoke, Va., in 1966. Georgia hasn’t played a non-conference road game west of the Mississippi River since going to Southern Cal in 1960.
Georgia once was a world traveler with the best of programs. Between World War II and 1967, Georgia played at Houston, Michigan, North Carolina, Southern Cal, Texas, Navy (in Norfolk, Va.), Maryland, Texas A&M (in Dallas), Villanova, Penn, Boston College, St. Mary’s (in San Francisco) and Temple.
And oh yes, the 1947 Bulldogs played in Stillwater, America, against the Oklahoma A&M Aggies.
For comparison, here’s a list of cities in which OSU has played non-conference games since 1970, outside the Midlands/Southwest region:
Seattle (Washington State & Washington); Troy, Ala. (Troy); Athens, Ga. (Georgia); Miami (Florida Atlantic & Miami);
Pasadena, Calif. (UCLA); Shreveport, La. (Louisiana Tech); Hattiesburg, Miss. (Southern Miss); Starkville, Miss. (Mississippi State); Lafayette, La. (Louisiana-Lafayette); Knoxville, Tenn. (Tennessee); Laramie, Wyo. (Wyoming);
DeKalb, Ill. (Northern Illinois); Tempe, Ariz. (Arizona State); Ann Arbor, Mich. (Michigan); Gainesville, Fla. (Florida);
Columbus, Ohio (Ohio State); Tokyo (Texas Tech); Cincinnati (Cincinnati); Louisville, Ky. (Louisville); San Diego (San Diego State); Columbia, S.C. (South Carolina);
Tallahassee, Fla. (Florida State); Blacksburg, Va. (Virginia Tech); and Jackson, Miss. (Jackson State).
Wow. Since Georgia last left the South in the regular season, OSU has played in 24 cities outside the Big 12 region. Yes, there are other factors.
For most of those years, Georgia played more home games than did OSU, though the Cowboys played a bunch of road games at Tulsa and Little Rock, Ark. (against the Razorbacks), and for purposes of this discussion, Little Rock was counted in the Big 12 region.
And there are more Division I schools in the South, giving Georgia more options in scheduling, though no state has more D-I schools than does Texas; OSU has played a bushel of non-conference games in Texas, and again, those weren’t included on the list.
And here’s what’s even more strange. When Georgia got around a little bit, its bowl games were all over the place. Georgia played 13 bowl games before 1970; six were outside the SEC area, including the Rose, Cotton and Sun.
But since 1970, Georgia has played 30 bowl games. Only five have been outside the SEC: the 2000 Oahu, 1985 Sun, 1984 Cotton, 1978 Bluebonnet and 1976 Cotton.
Think about that. In the last 23 years, Georgia has played one football game outside the South, that 2000 Oahu Bowl.
Welcome to the rest of America, Georgia.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
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Comments
Georgia isn’t the only reclusive giant of the SEC. Not many of the brethren venture far from home. It’s about time GA learns the joy of cross-country travel and face a competitive opponent – or so we think ASU is up to the challenge.
A good solid win for Georgia. They had to travel out west and beat a fairly good pac10 team and they also managed to beat the pac 10 officials.
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