Fan Base Questions
by donkeydawg on May 20, 2009 10:09 PM EDT
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PrintCharlottedawg's post on in-state recruiting got me thinking about a related question: the health and breadth of UGA's fan base.
I recall hearing some Dawg brass worry twenty years ago that the distribution of alumni wasn't keeping up with Atlanta's explosive population growth. Then in the 90s the big leaps in admissions requirements at UGA created some talk that the school's small-town fan base might be affected, since lots of good ol' boys might be forced to go to Georgia Southern or Valdosta State.
I don't live in-state anymore, but I get the impression that Atlanta's a pretty big Bulldog town these days (and it really didn't use to be), while the few small Georgia towns I've visited lately are as red-and-black as ever.
Our out-of-state fan base has certainly grown by leaps and bounds, but are there any other trends worth knowing about?
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Not sure what you mean...
…..by “small town fan base.” As an Alumnus of The University, I can tell you that the student body has always been rather diverse. I moved into Russell Hall in 1979, and it was always a mixture of Atlanta kids and rural kids from Toccoa to Bainbridge, from Rome to Waycross.
But you are correct in your Atlanta theory. Metro Atlanta has a greater population than entire states such as Alabama and South Carolina. The place has doubled just since 1989. I grew up in Montgomery, AL, but my father was from Cornelia in north Ga. Many of my family members have left Habersham and Rabun counties for Gwinnett and Forsyth and Henry. It is financial. It’s about jobs and opportunity – or they are leaving the state after graduation. I don’t have any firm demographic stats, but the state becomes a little less rural every year for reasons that are social, economic and political
I live in Atlanta ...
Based on social and professional contacts and on a non-scientific study of motor vehicle “flair”, I’d say UGA alumni and fans have as strong a presence here as ever.
On a side note, I recently had work in Savannah. On the way there, I saw where the overpass at Exit 49 (circa Dublin) had been hit or something on the westbound side. Large chunks of concrete and rebar were scattered on the roadway. Anyway, for the return trip, I left I-16 along about Swainsboro, and the small towns through which I passed seem pretty strongly UGA-oriented. Granted, this is the greater Wrightsville area, so one might expect a lasting Bulldog tendency.
I’ll also add that as I was growing up in LaGrange (I’m 42), it sure seemed like an Auburn town. It’s a geography thing, I guess.
Notwithstanding the significant strides made by the University in academic selectivity, I don’t think we’re in any danger of developing Michigan’s wine-and-cheese reputation.
No, but we are in danger . . .
. . . of the University of Georgia becoming the University of Metro Atlanta, if we are not there already.
The geographic distribution of University undergraduates is much more Marthasville-centric than it was a quarter-century ago, which may be cause for concern a quarter-century from now. If more and more South Georgians are going to school elsewhere other than the Classic City, we run the risk of seeing our alumni base in the region die out over time.
Of course, you don’t have to be an alum to be a fan, but, if identification with the University fades because the University seems to be focused elsewhere, that could hurt us in South Georgia in the long run. It’s certainly a situation to watch; there could come a day when we’re wondering whether any place in the state other than the Atlanta-Athens corridor contains Bulldog fans. Can a 51st state composed of South Georgia and North Florida, with its capital at Valdosta, be far behind?
Go 'Dawgs!
by T Kyle King on May 22, 2009 12:09 AM EDT up reply actions
Don't they cap in-state admission by county?
I thought UGA’s admissions process had a quota of sorts by county for in state students. I constantly hear mothers of prospective UGA students in the metro Atlanta counties complain about their son’s or daughter’s chances of getting into UGA being slimmer because they live in Cobb, Fulton, Gwinnett, or Dekalb counties (the receptionist at my office is one particularly whiny mother whose son is now going to KSU because her son was not accepted to UGA). I live in Cobb County but grew up in Whitfield, and attended UGA myself, so I did not directly have to overcome that quota, if it even exists. I don’t know if it is true that they do cap the number of students accepted by county to maintain a better representation of the state in the student body. If they do, I doubt it’s officially recognized as a practice. It may be nothing more than a way for those whiny mothers to excuse their son’s or daughter’s stupidity shortcomings dismal SAT score (I’m struggling to find a PC way to say this, so screw it…) stupidity.
by marktheshark on May 22, 2009 2:05 PM EDT up reply actions
The only geographic bias...
… that I’m aware of was a longstanding program of giving preferential treatment to local applicants from high schools in Clarke, Oconee, Jackson, Oglethorpe, Madison, and Morgan counties. This was out of the desire to give local students a viable local option to attend college, like a glorified community college.
This was an anachronism even when I was in school, though, and was on its way out even then. I don’t think the program survives in any meaningful way now. Athens has so many satellite campuses now that such a program is certainly not needed. Gainesville College & Piedmont College are the two biggest non-UGA colleges with Athens campuses, and they enroll a significant number of students. Gainesville had about 2100 students in 2008, and Piedmont had about 700.
I did some work with the Admissions Department during my time at UGA, and other than the program I just mentioned, I have no knowledge of quotas by county or any other geographic division. Like most universities do now, however, UGA gets pretty subjective when it comes to selecting students that are “on the bubble” in terms of admission standards. Diversity and multiculturalism is the name of the game at that point, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see a student from Bacon County High School selected over a student with exactly the same color, age, grades, test scores, and extracirriculars from, say, Chattahoochee High School or Lassiter High School. And if you’re a minority and on the bubble, you’re in, all other things being equal. (Yes I know… all other things are never equal.)
by vineyarddawg on May 22, 2009 2:34 PM EDT up reply actions
Wouch such a place be named...
… Valdosta State?
Or Georgia Southern? (Ok, I’m stretching there from a political standpoint… but trying to make a point. as to which program could potentially usurp Georgia fans due to a long-term demographic shift in college attendance.)
by vineyarddawg on May 22, 2009 2:09 PM EDT up reply actions
South Georgia Fan Base
Well, things have definitely changed. When I was growing up (a good while back), South Georgia was a hotbed of Dawgmania, and Atlanta definitely wasn’t. But that was also back when Athens wasn’t in any way considered part of metro Atlanta, proximity notwithstanding. Hostility to Atlanta in South Georgia is an ancient thing, and probably fiercer than ever today, so if UGA is now an “Atlanta school” like Tech’s always been, it could definitely affect fan support.
Interesting
The funny thing is that Georgia Tech now largely isn’t an Atlanta school, except geographically. The Institute is now more like Emory . . . in Georgia, but not of Georgia. It’s a way station that folks pass through on their way from someplace else to someplace else. I’d be willing to bet that a larger portion of your local Georgia Tech fan base has no personal academic association with the Institute itself now than at any previous point in history.
Go 'Dawgs!
Can't speak for much of Georgia...
…but if The Dawgs start dominating, I can guarantee you that, down here in Augusta, people will be fighting to get a seat on the bandwagon. Going into last year, most “Dawg fans” down here could almost name THREE players. Knowshon, Stafford, and…….I said almost.
Increase in auburn fans
My aunt and uncle live in Newnan and it’s seems like their are a lot of Auburn fans down there. I think some of them might be ex techy bandwagon fans.
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