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Thursday, November 18, 2010

Boise State back on the schedule?

There have been rumors all day that Georgia will move, or cancel, its scheduled 2011 opener against Louisville in favor of a matchup with Boise State in the Chick-fil-A Classic in Atlanta.

That would be a major switch, and would involve a number of schools, including the above three as well as Mississippi and BYU.

Here's what we know:

- Georgia athletics director Greg McGarity said he couldn't comment yet on the situation.

"I just can't say anything right now," McGarity said.

- Georgia head coach Mark Richt repeatedly (but playfully) declined to comment after Thursday's practice when asked about playing Boise State again, or scheduling changes, or anything pertaining to the issue.

"I'll tell you Monday," Richt said, perhaps tipping off when an announcement might be made.

- Louisville associate A.D. Kenny Klein said earlier this afternoon that he'd "heard rumblings" of changes, but as of now there was nothing to report and it was still scheduled to play at Georgia in September of 2011.

Later, another source at Louisville confirmed that Georgia has reached out to that school in an effort to move or cancel the series. Georgia was set to return the visit to Louisville in 2012.

The contract for the series stipulates that the cost of cancellation, unless it's done by mutual consent, would be $600,000 per game. So Georgia would appear to owe Louisville $1.2 million unless it negotiates a lower figure - and that could happen as part of the scheduling changes involved in the deal.

However, Georgia would probably make up the money easily: This year's Chick-fil-A Classic in Atlanta paid each team, North Carolina and LSU, $2.3 million each.

- Mississippi, which was scheduled to face Boise State, was set to make a major scheduling announcement on Thursday, according to athletics director Pete Boone. But Boone tweeted later in the day that there were "a lot of moving parts" and apologized for a delay in the announcement.

Those moving parts are a reason that this doesn't appear to be a done deal.

ESPN is a driving force in this, and if it does shift things around, it has to find matchups involving BYU, Ole Miss and Louisville. That's assuming that Boise State and Georgia are being matched in Atlanta, which at this point, as I said, may not be a done deal.

Or it could be, and the announcement is being delayed until those other teams find matchups. I guess we'll find out Monday, if Richt is right.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

yeah... I guess Boise would love a shot a UGA now since the football program is tanking. The revenge factor would play out just nicely as it has for OKie State and Colorado. UGA is in big big trouble.

Calif Dawg said...

Rather than worry about a big payday, get back to respectability first. Maybe start by winning 10 games in a season, then reach out to the folks in ATL. This is pretty disappointing news.

BainCrow said...

If we play this game on Labor Day, thereby giving us a short week before the OBC, I might be done with football for awhile . . .

David said...

Good reporting.

Watching Boise State Game (on non-blue turf) against what should be a good defense would be a great game. It would also add a sense of urgency in the off-season. Need to be ready to play on National TV against a potential Defending National Champ.

Anonymous said...

I love it. The home-and-home with Louisville didn't make sense anyway. Programs like Georgia don't need to travel to programs like Louisville. If we're going to travel for an OOC game, travel to a big name program.

However, I agree with BainCrow above - please don't play this on Labor Day...or Sunday for that matter. We need a full week to get ready for South Carolina.

Anonymous said...

Just have Louisville go play Ole Miss that day and bada bing, the deal is done! Nothing more complicated needs to be contemplated. That would be better for both of them anyway.

jamivee said...

Seth, how is BYU involved? Am I missing something?