Georgia football fans fortunate to never have experienced what Ole Miss fans will
Georgia football has never faced what Ole Miss football is now facing. A self-imposed bowl ban following an NCAA Investigation.
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Georgia football fans have a lot to be proud of.
Georgia’s 12 SEC Championships are third in the conference and only two titles away from second place. The Bulldogs have two consensus National Championships and a claim to three others. Georgia’s averaged around 10 wins a season over the past 20 years and the fans get to watch the best Bulldogs continue their careers in the NFL.
Another point of pride however gets forgotten about. That is until situations like what’s going on at Ole Miss happen. The Rebels will not be playing in a bowl game in after the 2017 season following an investigation in which the NCAA claims that Ole Miss has a lack of institutional control.
The Bulldog Nation should feel blessed that we’ve lately we haven’t had to worry about this. We’ve dealt with issues involving single players like A.J. Green in 2010 and Todd Gurley in 2014. But Georgia has not felt the NCAA’s hammer drop on their program any time recently.
The last time Georgia football was punished by the NCAA was in 1997. The Bulldogs were given two years on probation, a deduction of scholarships, reduction in financial aid and official visits the program could schedule.
But after Jim Donnan left Athens, Georgia became a cleaner program. Before this week, the NCAA punished SEC teams 11 times. Alabama and Mississippi State were punished twice. They were also each punished shortly before Georgia in 1997.
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In fact, Alabama faced major sanctions three times between 1995 and 2009, and according to the NCAA Repeat Violators rule, the Crimson Tide missed out on the Death Penalty by two years. Had their infractions been found in 2000 instead of 2002, Alabama may have sat out the 2001 season.
As for the repeat violator rule, it was established in 1985 after many programs kept getting in trouble in the early 1980’s, Georgia included with sanctions following 1982 and 1985. But it’s apparent that the University of Georgia got the message the NCAA was sending as the program has been punished only once since then.
Other programs have been a little less careful. Out of the 21 times the NCAA punished teams in the SEC since 1985, seven teams have been punished multiple times. The most being Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi State three times each. The others are Ole Miss, Florida, South Carolina and LSU. Georgia, Auburn, Kentucky and Arkansas were only punished once each.
Under Mark Richt and [hopefully] continuing under Kirby Smart, the Bulldogs have steered clear of the NCAA’s heavy hand.
Fans haven’t gone into seasons hopeless because we couldn’t even compete for championships. We’ve never missed out on seeing the Dawgs play in a bowl game because they got in trouble. No loss of scholarships, no probation, not even a whisper of the death penalty since 2001.
That’s something Georgia football fans take for granted. I’d love to win a National Title as much as anyone. But I do not want to see the Bulldogs get into trouble on their way there.