Non Conference BCS Victories:

(2007)

(7-6) OK State 35-14

(2007)

(7-6) Georgia Tech 31-17

(2006)

(2-10) Colorado

14-13

(2006)

(9-5) Georgia Tech 15-12

(2006)

(10-3) Virginia Tech

31-24

(2005)

(7-5) Georgia Tech

14-7

(2004)

(7-5) Georgia Tech

19-13

(2004)

(9-3) Wisconsin

24-21

(2003)

(9-4) Clemson

30-0

(2003)

(7-6) Georgia Tech

34-17

(2003)

(9-4) Purdue

34-27

(2002)

(7-6) Clemson

31-28

(2002)

(7-6) Georgia Tech

51-7

(2002)

(9-5) Florida State

26-13

(2001)

(8-5) Georgia Tech

31-17

(2000)

(6-6) Virginia

37-14

(1998)

(9-3) Virginia

35-33

Non Conference BCS Losses:

(2005)

(11-1) W. Virginia

38-35

(2001)

(8-4) Boston College 20-16

(2000)

(9-3) Georgia Tech 27-15

(1999)

(8-4) Georgia Tech 51-48

(1998)

(10-2) Georgia Tech 21-19

Non BCS Records:  21-0

UAB (2-0)

N. Mexico St  (2-0)Hawaii  (1-0)

Houston (1-0)

Marshall (1-0)

LA Monroe (1-0)

M. Tenn. (1-0)

Troy (1-0)

Wyoming  (1-0)

Utah St (1-0)

Kent St (1-0)

UCF (1-0)

Arkansas St (1-0)

Boise St (1-0)

Notable Non-BCS Losses:

Zero:  21 - 0

DI-AA Opponents

Western Carolina

Georgia So (2)

Western Kentucky

Northwestern St

Georgia  Bowl Games in the BCS Era:

2008

BCS Sugar Bowl

41-10 Hawaii

2007

Chick fil-A Bowl

31-24 Virginia T.

2006

BCS Sugar Bowl

35-38 W. Virginia

2005

Outback Bowl

24-21 Wisconsin

2004

Capitol One Bowl

34-27 Purdue

2003

BCS Sugar Bowl

26-13 Florida St

2002

Music City Bowl

16-20 Boston C.

2001

Oahu  Bowl

37-14 Virginia

2000

Outback Bowl

28-25 Purdue

1999

Peach Bowl

35-33 Virginia

1998

Outback Bowl

33-6 Wisconsin

Bowl Record in BCS Era:

8 - 2

Non Conference BCS Victories:

(2007)

(7-6) Florida St 45-12

(2006)

(7-6) Florida St 41-14

(2006)

(12-1) The Ohio St

41-14

(2005)

(8-5) Florida St 34-7

(2005)

(7-5) Iowa

31-24

(2004)

(9-3) Florida St

20-13

(2001)

(8-4) Florida St

37-13

(2001)

(10-2) Maryland

56-23

(1998)

(8-4) Syracuse

31-10

Non Conference BCS Losses:

(2007)

(9-4) Michigan

41-35

(2004)

(9-3) Miami 27-10

(2003)

(10-3) Florida St 38-34

(2003)

(10-3) Iowa 37-17

(2003)

(11-2) Miami 38-33

(2002)

(12-1) Miami 41-16

(2002)

(9-5) Florida St 31-14

(2002)

(10-3) Michigan 38-30

(2000)

(11-2) Florida St 30-7

(2000)

(11-1) Miami 37-20

(1999)

(12-0) Florida St 30-23

(1999)

(10-2) Michigan St 37-34

(1998)

(11-2) Florida St 23-12

Non BCS Records:  22-0

LA Monroe (2-0)

M. Tenn. (2-0)

Troy (1-0)

Wyoming  (1-0)

SJSU (1-0)

We Kentucky (1-0)

UCF (1-0)

LA Tech (1-0)

Ea. Michigan (1-0)

We. Michigan (1-0)

Marshall (1-0)

So Miss (1-0)

FLA Atlantic (1-0)

UAB (1-0)

Ohio (1-0)

Ball St (1-0)

Notable Non-BCS Losses:

Zero:  22 - 0

DI-AA Opponents

Western Carolina

Florida A&M

The Citadel

Florida  Bowl Games in the BCS Era:

2008

Capitol One Bowl

35-41 Michigan

2007

BCS Fiesta Bowl

41-14 Ohio St

2006

Outback Bowl

31-24 Iowa

2005

Peach Bowl

10-27 Miami

2004

Outback Bowl

17-37 Iowa

2003

Outback Bowl

30-38 Michigan

2002

BCS Orange Bowl

56-23 Maryland

2001

BCS Sugar Bowl

20-37 Miami

2000

Citrus Bowl

34-37 Michigan St

1999

BCS Orange Bowl

31-10 Syracuse

Bowl Record in BCS Era:

4 - 6

But then again, with most of the herd returning for both programs next season, Florida did go 1-4 against the elite last year and 6-4 against programs with winning records, while Georgia went 3-1 against the elite and 8-1 against programs with winning records, including that 42-30 victory in Jacksonville over the mighty Gators, only their second over Florida in the last decade.

However, looks can be deceiving because Georgia did not play programs with the caliber of LSU or Michigan’s  personnel this past season, while Florida not only played LSU and Michigan, but Florida State as well.  The best team on Georgia’s schedule last year was Auburn, who they beat handily, but then loss to the Vols and the Gamecocks held the attention of many.

More importantly, the Dawgs haven’t exactly dominated Tennessee (5-5), LSU (4-2) or Auburn (5-5) as well.  And even though Georgia has dominated the bottom half of the conference (34-5), Florida has out-trumped the Dawgs when competing with this tier of competition as well (32-5) as Georgia is 9-1 against both Kentucky and Vanderbilt, while the Gators are a perfect 10-0 against the Cats and Commodores, the bottom feeders of the conference.

Here is the Bulldog record versus SEC opponents inside the BCS era:

1. 1. 

   

     2 - 8
   
2. 2. 

   

     5 - 5
   
3. 3. 

   

     4 - 2
   
4. 4. 

   

     5 - 5
   
5. 5. 

   

     5 - 0
   
6. 6. 

   

     3 - 0
   
7. 7. 

   

     7 - 0
   
8. 8. 

   

     7 - 3
   
9. 9. 

   

     2 - 0
   

The Dawgs are 58-25 within the SEC in the last decade, yet they are a meager 24-20 versus the top-six programs of the SEC for the same duration.  Florida on the other hand is 62-21 overall in the SEC, and 30-16 against the top-six by comparison. 

Would you agree that there is a big difference between 30-16 compared to 24-20, just like their is a big difference between the two programs since Florida has won eight of the last ten in the “Outdoor Cocktail” series.

The kicker is that Florida’s rivalry with Florida State certainly trumps Georgia’s rivalry with Georgia Tech, even though Florida is 5-5 against the Seminoles in the last decade, while Georgia is 7-3 against Georgia Tech.

Georgia Tech hardly rates on the national juggernaut richter scale while Florida State (even in spite of the fact that they have struggled mightily the last several seasons) essentially defines the term itself. 

The Peach State rivalry is but a microcosm that truly defines Georgia’s plight given their quest for national respect, as the Yellow-Jacket program has only achieved the ELITE 9 win benchmark on three occasions within the BCS era, and they have beaten the Dawgs in two of those three meetings, while Georgia, in six of their seven wins over the Jackets, has beaten a team that has won 8 games or less, essentially hovering around the .500 mediocrity line.

Georgia feasts on both the sub .500 and 7-to-eight win programs, yet can’t seem to get over the hump consistently enough to achieve that top-shelf benchmark the comes your way when beating a team like Georgia in 8 of the last ten meetings, as Florida has done with Georgia.

Georgia has certainly been good in the last decade, but what Stewart Mandel failed to illuminate in his article, is that Georgia hasn’t been able to beat the ELITE teams within its own conference consistently enough to get out from under the wide ranging shadows cast from Florida, LSU, Auburn and Tennessee, and if you take Georgia Tech, Clemson and Virginia (14 games) out of the equation in consideration of the Dawgs near perfect 17-5 record against the BCS Non-Conference opponents throughout the BCS era, they have only played Oklahoma State, Colorado, Virginia Tech, Wisconsin, Purdue, Boston College and West Virginia in the last decade.  The only ELITE team in that scenario, by record of course, was West Virginia (12-1) and they were beaten by the Mountaineers in that particular BCS Sugar Bowl game.

Florida by comparison has played Florida State ten times (5-5), Miami four times (0-4), Michigan twice (0-2) Iowa twice (1-1) and Ohio State (1-0).  Even though their record in these games is less than stellar (7-12) look at who they are playing, which is compounded by the fact they are dominating Georgia in their annual rivalry.

Who has Georgia played that is ELITE in the last decade, and more importantly, who have they BEATEN (consistently) that is ELITE to give them the lofty status they so crave and arguably deserve?  And for that matter, couldn’t you say the same for the entire SEC Conference considering not only Florida’s record outside of the SEC, but the fact that the entire conference has a losing record when playing teams with 9 or more wins throughout the BCS era?

My final thought to be taken into consideration is Tennessee, Florida, LSU and even Auburn have completed perfect or near perfect seasons to put themselves into position to achieve that ELITE status benchmark.  Even this past year when many Dawg fans, including Head Coach Mark Richt, tried to throw themselves into the national championship argument by claiming their 10-2 record was equal to their Baton Rouge counterparts, fails miserably in this analysis. 

LSU beat both Tennessee and South Carolina, while Georgia did not.  LSU won their division while Georgia did not, and LSU played a quality opponent outside of their conference while Georgia did not, unless of course you want to compare Troy to Virginia Tech.   If you want to achieve that ELITE status, you need to schedule difficult non-conference games, even away from home (something Georgia has rarely done in the last 25 years), because the Peach State rivalry does not compare with Texas-Oklahoma, USC-Notre Dame, Florida-Florida State or Ohio State-Michigan. 

And in nearly every category in which you can compare the top teams in the SEC (Florida, LSU, Tennessee and Auburn) with Georgia, the Dawgs still trail, although slightly in each case.  In borrowing a line from one of my favorite movies, “Chappy, A lot of little bottles, make one big bottle.”  (For The Love of the Game)

A fitting line since most of the these statistical measures show slight deficiencies for Georgia, but when adding them all up together, even though the record is nice and shiny in the end, it doesn’t measure up to the nation’s elite programs who have won BCS Championships in the last decade (USC, LSU, Oklahoma, Florida, Michigan, Ohio State, Texas or Tennessee). 

Even Auburn’s BCS snub in 2003 (14-0), trumps Georgia’s BCS snub in 2002 (13-1), once again, by the slimmest of margins.  Not only that, but this statistical analysis demonstrates the outlandish poll ranking system that prides itself on speculation and projection rather than the actual on field performance.  The fact that Georgia was ranked higher than LSU going into the final regular season ranking, without even winning its own division of the SEC shows an incredible amount of incompetence and the ridiculousness of traditional “Power Resume” profiling.

Since Georgia has always been a major component and player within the College Football Association, I would think they would understand this double-standard as they have helped to formulate the many idiosyncrasies that drive college football fans to drink when trying to fully understand the BCS and the criteria for meeting ELITE benchmarks.

In 2002, Georgia completed a 13-1 season, and incredibly were completely over-looked in the national championship argument.  They played and beat 11 opponents who had winning records and four who achieved the elite 9 win benchmark (Florida State, Arkansas, Auburn and Alabama).   This was the year that Ohio State beat Miami in overtime, which was the second best BCS title game behind USC - Texas in my opinion. 

Ohio State played 9 opponents with winning records and five elite (9 plus win programs), while Miami played 8 programs with winning records and six elite (9 plus win programs) by comparison.

Even in Georgia’s best season in over twenty years, they were overshadowed by another set of juggernauts, which is what I think Stewart Mandel was trying to say, although I can’t for the life of me figure out why he chose Penn State for his comparative analysis? 

If college football was likened to a Christmas tree with 25 elite bulbs burning brightly on the tree, you would have a hard time identifying Georgia’s red hue when comparing Florida or Miami’s Orange, Ohio State’s Crimson, USC’s Cardinal or Oklahoma and Florida States similar shade of hue.  Somehow, Georgia’s traditional “G” on the shiny glowing helmet, shaped like a bulb, would immediately get lost in the shuffle when considering the elite ray of lights.

Could 2008 be the year all of this changes?  The College Football Association alliance, now called the BCS, is certainly casting its spotlight on Bulldog Nation, but will it, in the end, be deservingly so?  As a result of this  statistics analysis, however, at least the competent fans can clearly grasp why Georgia has garnered the pole position in the race for BCS glory in 2008.

The Florida Gators

Although the Florida Gators already had a significant level of success given their history and tradition in the sport of college football prior to the College Football Association movement, the program attained national (ELITE) recognition, along with the entire SEC, when Arkansas and South Carolina were added in 1992.

Playing in the first conference title game in 1992, eventually losing to National Champion Alabama, the Gators proceeded to not only play in, but win the next four conference championship games, cementing their branded identity as a national power in the eyes of many.

The Georgia Bulldogs were completely off the national radar during this critical era which has fed the BCS monster. 

Florida remains the only team in SEC history to play in five straight SEC title games, which is yet another reason why Florida has a significant leg up in terms of national recognition as compared to Georgia.

The Gators would win the SEC again in 2000 and 2006 giving the Gators the perception as the signature program in the SEC since its expansion took place in 1992.  Here is the breakdown of the SEC title recipients, in which the Gators have dominated a list of tradition rich programs.

1992:  Alabama 28 - Florida 21

1993:  Florida 28 - Alabama 13

1994:  Florida 24 - Alabama 23

1995:  Florida 34 - Arkansas 3

1996:  Florida 45 - Alabama 30

1997:  Tennessee  30 - Auburn 29

1998:  Tennessee 24 - Mississippi State 14

1999:  Alabama 34 - Florida 7

2000:  Florida 28 - Auburn 6

2001:  LSU 31 - Tennessee 20

2002:  Georgia 30 - Arkansas 3

2003:  LSU 34 - Georgia 13

2004:  Auburn 38 - Tennessee 28

2005:  Georgia 34 - LSU 14

2006:  Florida 38 - Arkansas 28

2007:  LSU 21 - Tennessee 14

SEC East Leads the Series:  10 - 6

As you can see, Florida has played in half of the SEC title games and is clearly in the lead in terms of conference titles with five, although LSU certainly has a better win percentage winning three of four (.750) compared to Florida who has won five of eight (.625).

Georgia is among the aristocrats, winning two of three, but, AGAIN, is trumped by five other teams in terms of competing in, and winning SEC titles.  This is significant information that Stewart Mandel left out of his season opening article prior to the 2007 regular season, which incensed many Georgia fans to write in, calling out Stewart’s level of incompetence.

However, given the fact that Florida has dominated throughout the history of the newly created (12 team) SEC Super-Conference, the Gators have struggled when playing elite programs, both within the SEC and among the other BCS notables.

Their 62-21 conference record is drastically distorted when considering the fact that they are 9-13 versus the other BCS programs from outside the SEC, four and six in bowl games throughout the BCS era, and 21-28 when playing ELITE programs who have reached the nine win benchmark.

Like most of the other SEC powers, they are 44-1 against the programs who are under the .500 mediocrity line, of which most of these teams (LA-Monroe, Middle Tennessee, Troy, LA-Tech, Eastern Michigan, UAB and Ohio) reside within the MAC, Sun Belt or Conference USA.

AGAIN, where does the almighty strength of the SEC derive from if we take these wimpy-patsy win variables out of the elite determination.  Florida is the best team in the SEC for the decade, and yet they are under .500 in every major elite statistical category determining the elite in college football.  That “SEC mystique” is all hype.  As one common professional scout professes, who emailed me with the following comment this past year while watching the South Carolina - Vanderbilt affair:  SEC in Spanish = “HOT AIR.”

The most amazing stat here, considering Florida is accepted regularly as a national power, is the Quality Opponent Factor, which clearly demonstrates that Florida has only had two seasons out of ten where they have a winning record against the ELITE nine win benchmark teams (2006 when they went 31-1 and won the national title, and 2001 when they went 10-2).

If you take those records out of the equation, what is moderately respectable (21-28 QOF-Rating Record) becomes absolutely abysmal (12-26 QOF-Rating Record). Where exactly is the SEC strength in that?

Florida’s Record versus the SEC in the BCS era:

1. 1. 

   

     8 - 2
   
2. 2. 

   

     6 - 4
   
3. 3. 

   

     6 - 4
   
4. 4. 

   

     5 - 3
   
5. 5. 

   

     3 - 0
   
6. 6. 

   

     2 - 3
   
7. 7. 

   

     1 - 2
   
8. 8. 

   

     9 - 1
   
9. 9. 

   

     2 - 2
   

Considering Georgia was .500 against both Tennessee and Auburn, clearly two of the five ELITE members of the SEC over the course of the BCS era, Florida trumps once again, with winning records against the branded ELITE. 

Oddly, the only three teams the Gators seem to have trouble with inside the SEC is the trip to the Mississippi schools.  Fortunately, they only play the two schools thirty to forty percent of the time, while they get SEC doormats Kentucky, Vanderbilt and South Carolina every season, along with UAB, Louisiana-Monroe and Eastern Michigan.  But then again, it’s all about the pretty records in the SEC now isn’t it!

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