Ten Teams Georgia Should Schedule in Two-for-One Series

Lately, Paul Westerdawg has been looking at the scheduling complexities that have accompanied the 12-game regular-season schedule, noting the leverage this gives non-marquee programs to demand two-for-one deals.

Despite these challenges, Damon Evans has scheduled aggressively, earning much-deserved praise for eschewing the preposterous eight-game home slate.

The 'Dawgs have never scheduled eight home games and have played as many as seven home games just three times, in 1980, 2002, and 2006. 2007 will be the fourth such year, although the extra home games in three of those seasons were against B.C.S. conference opponents with whom the Red and Black scheduled subsequent road games, facing Clemson in Death Valley in 2003 and arranging to play Oklahoma State in Stillwater in 2009 and Colorado in Boulder in 2010.

If Dan Hawkins can't beat Georgia on his home turf, he may be forced to go play intramurals, brother!

Unsurprisingly, Georgia's most-played out-of-conference series predominantly are against current A.C.C. schools, so, in the spirit of branching out a bit and restoring Georgia's long-dormant tradition of national scheduling, here are the teams I would be interested in taking on twice at home and once on the road:

Texas Christian: The 'Dawgs actually have some history with the Frogs. The Classic City Canines' first bowl game was a win over T.C.U. in the Orange Bowl on New Year's Day 1942, the Red and Black beat the Horned Frogs on the way to the 1980 national championship, and Georgia defeated Texas Christian in Sanford Stadium in the second game of Vince Dooley's final season on the sideline in 1988. T.C.U. has earned the big boys' respect and a showdown with the Horned Frogs in the Lone Star State is long overdue.

Boise State: The Bulldogs' 2005 season-opener between the hedges was a blast. Let's invite the Broncos back a couple more times and agree to play B.S.U. on the Smurf turf once as an enticement.

Nevada: Chris Ault's Wolf Pack squad has made its presence felt in the W.A.C., sharing the conference crown in 2005 and taking down Northwestern last autumn. Besides, the beauty of playing a game in Reno is that the cops would seem all too familiar to players like Blake Barnes and Tripp Chandler:

"Is that an open container, son? GET DOWN ON THE GROUND AND PUT YOUR HANDS ABOVE YOUR HEAD OR I SWEAR I'LL SHOOT!"

Houston: Athens, we have a problem. Georgia is 1-2-1 all-time against the Cougars. It's high time we rectified that situation by scheduling three more games with Houston and taking advantage of the opportunity to claim the Bulldogs' first series lead.

Navy: The Midshipmen have beaten the Red and Black twice in two series meetings, outscoring Georgia by a combined 54-17 in Annapolis in 1916 and in Norfolk in 1957. Let's get the U.S.N.A. (led by former Georgia Southern head coach Paul Johnson) between the hedges a couple of times and take another trip to the Chesapeake Bay as part of the bargain.

Fresno State: While I wouldn't want him coaching my team, I like Pat Hill's attitude. The West Coast F.S.U. will play "anyone, anytime, anywhere" and you have to love a squad whose defensive mantra is "shut up and hit somebody!" Although Fresno State's gut-wrenching loss to Southern California in 2005 seemed to suck the life out of the Golden State Canines, who have lost 12 of their last 16 games, Coach Hill's program has beaten such B.C.S. conference opponents as California, Colorado, Georgia Tech, Kansas State, Oregon State (twice), U.C.L.A., Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin since the start of the 2000 season. It's a dog-eat-dog world and the Bulldogs should play the Bulldogs twice in the Classic City and once in the Raisin Capital of the World.

Rutgers: Hey, this one's a no-brainer:

Show me another non-Southern school with an alumna this good-looking and we'll play a game in their house, too.

Michigan State: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know . . . they're a B.C.S. conference team. Whatever. When the biggest win in school history is a tie, spare me the pretense that it's a program steeped in glory and storied tradition. While we're working to arrange a home and home series with the Wolverines, we'll just have to make do with the Spartan fare of a two-for-one exchange of games between the land-grant universities in Athens and East Lansing.

Hawaii: Historically, playing football games in the Aloha State has been grounds for firing a head coach, but we'll make an exception on this occasion. Now that it's named after a cool movie about gang violence instead of christened in honor of the Greenpeace boat that was sunk by the French, the squad fielded by former Atlanta Falcons head coach June Jones is a worthy opponent. Let's invite them to the mainland and take the return trip to Honolulu.

Georgia Tech: What, like we couldn't impose that demand on the Yellow Jackets at this point?

When it comes time to fill the slots on the Bulldogs' slate that are not reserved for league opponents, historic rivals, major out-of-conference programs, Sun Belt also-rans, or Division I-AA rent-a-wins, what teams would you like to see scheduled in two-for-one arrangements?

Go 'Dawgs!