The blogosphere has been a busy place of late, and it has been tough to keep up, so I am left to share a pair of links that warranted mention but, frankly, didn’t seem to fit anywhere else. These are they:
Simultaneously with SB Nation’s Conference Re-Draft Project, Cowboy Altitude has been crafting geographically contiguous conferences, into the latest of which the Georgia Bulldogs have been placed alongside the Central Florida Knights, Clemson Tigers, Florida Atlantic Owls, Florida Gators, Fla. International Golden Panthers, Florida St. Seminoles, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, Miami Hurricanes, South Carolina Gamecocks, and South Florida Bulls.
The pros, obviously, would include preserving the Red and Black’s rivalries with Florida and Georgia Tech, restoring our rivalry with Clemson, and boosting our recruiting base in the Sunshine State. The cons, on the other hand, are membership in an eleven-member league (which makes no sense), the end of the Bulldogs’ conference rivalry with the Auburn Tigers (more about whom anon), the elevation of the mid-major alphabet soup of the FAU/FIU/UCF triumvirate (yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember the Liberty Bowl, but I think we all know how playing Georgia every year would work out for the Knights), and just too dang much contact with the land of palm trees and sand. (Also, I was a little dismayed to learn that the author of the piece apparently was unfamiliar with the term "World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party," which I assumed every college football fan knew, regardless of regional origin.)
Likewise, earlier this week, Doug Gillett asked which opposing fan base Bulldog Nation most loved to hate, and among his observations was this one: "Georgia-Auburn is one of the friendlier (or at least more respectful) rivalries in the SEC, so the Plainsmen wouldn't have made this list were it not for the 2010 season."
Now, far be it from me to find fault with Doug’s perspective on the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry; he is, after all, a Columbus native who hasn’t missed a Georgia-Auburn game, at home or away, in many years. He’s the guy I called upon to write the history of the series with the Plainsmen for the Maple Street Press annual, and he did a first-rate job of it.
Accordingly, I won’t quarrel with Doug’s position, which I know to be both sincere and well-informed. I will simply state that the Venn diagram depicting the Auburn fans of his acquaintance and the Auburn fans of my acquaintance features very little overlap between the two circles. As you may have heard mentioned a time or two around here, I hate Auburn, and their fans have more than a little to do with that (though their constant cheating and their unsavory on-field tactics rank right up there, as well).
Let’s just say that, when Gene Chizik publicly accosts the NCAA compliance director by pelting her with questions in a testy exchange, and the group of Auburn fans of whom I am most fond urges Coach Chizik to quit turning the other cheek, we aren’t exactly talking about a fan base that’s in "the meek shall inherit the earth" territory, you know what I mean? I’m just sayin’.
Go ‘Dawgs!