UGA football and how the Bulldogs were robbed in 2002

The UGA football program has had its share of chances to win it all since 1980, but in 2002 Georgia was robbed of a chance at a title.

If you’re a UGA football fan, you probably visibly wince when someone brings up the 2018 National Championship Game, or the 2012 SEC Championship Game, or even the 1983 Sugar Bowl — all close calls and lost chances for the Bulldogs to win a national title.

But a year that is seldom mentioned in that group of painful memories is the 2002 season because truthfully, the Dawgs were never really given a fair shot.

It was in the height of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) years when the national championship teams were decided by poll information fed into a computer database, which then gave us the rankings. At the end of the season, the two highest-ranked teams were given the honor of playing in the BCS Championship Game to crown a national champion.

Or, so it said on paper.

This flawed system had so much annual blowback from both fans and media that it ended up being completely scrapped in favor of the current College Football Playoff format. If you think arguing over which four teams deserve to be in the playoff is bad, the fruitless discussion about which TWO teams the ranking computers got wrong was infinitely worse.

In 2002, Georgia football had its best season since 1982, going 10-1 in the regular season including wins over ranked Alabama, Auburn and Arkansas teams, and an opening week non-conference win against Clemson.

In any other season — before or after the BCS — this would have been enough to warrant a shot at the title. But in the mind of the college football version of HAL 9000, it was only worth an invite to the once-heralded Sugar Bowl and a win over No. 16 Florida State.

More from Georgia Football

• Georgia Football: Top 5 Nick Chubb Moments at Georgia
• Georgia Football: Know the enemy UAB Blazers
• Georgia Football: Should laundry list of injuries be a cause to panic?
• Georgia Football: Report cards for Week 3 game against South Carolina
• Georgia football: Sunday afternoon thoughts and feelings

So who did get the golden ticket to the BCS title game that year? No. 1 Ohio State, who did have their own strong resume of an undefeated season in a reasonably tough Big Ten that year, and No. 2 Miami, who also went undefeated in the regular season…

In the Big East.

Yes, that Big East. The once-powerful basketball conference that had been watered down to just eight teams for football. A conference that housed the likes of Rutgers, Temple, Syracuse, and Boston College.

So why would Miami get the nod over Georgia given these circumstances?

Two words.

Florida Gators.

That season, Georgia’s only blemish was against their bitter rivals from Gainesville in a 13-20 loss at the Cocktail Party in Jacksonville. Meanwhile, the Hurricanes somehow managed to beat up on Florida in Week 2 to the tune of a 41-16 drubbing in the Gators’ home stadium (with ESPN’s College GameDay on hand to give the Hurricanes even more flex).

Those two diametrically opposed meetings with the Gators meant the difference between title contender and also-ran for the Bulldogs that year.

But was that loss indicative of who Georgia was that year? Or was there something else afoot?

UGA football was better than Miami football in 2002

The truth is, Georgia was robbed that season. Not by the referees or by a fluke play to win the game for the Gators, but by the BCS and its system’s inability to truly see which teams were the most complete and (for lack of a better word) best teams in the nation.

The overall record of the teams Georgia played that season was 95-70 (.576 win pct). Miami’s opponents compiled a 75-69 record (.521 win pct). Additionally, Georgia had to play a conference title game against a ranked opponent. The Big East had no championship game.

In terms of conference opponents, of the SEC foes Georgia played that season only South Carolina (5-7) and Vanderbilt (2-10) had losing records. Miami’s conference schedule losers consisted of Syracuse (4-8), Temple (4-8) and Rutgers (1-11).

Looking at non-conference, Georgia also had the upper hand in strength of schedule. The Bulldogs faced and beat these non-SEC opponents.

Clemson (7-6)
Northwestern State (FCS 9-4)
New Mexico State (7-5)
Georgia Tech (7-6)

Miami’s out-of-conference slate:

FAMU (FCS 7-5)
UConn (6-6, their first year in FBS level)
Florida State (9-5)
Tennessee (8-5)

In short, Miami beat up on a lot of bad teams that season to pad their resume, while Georgia endured a grueling SEC schedule as well as a balanced non-conference group of games.

There’s no denying, if this pair of schedules and results were looked at through the eye of a College Football Playoff committee, Georgia would be given the nod over Miami were it being reduced to just two teams. The computers simply weren’t adept at taking strength of schedule, opponents’ strength of schedule, and the all-important eye test into consideration.

Miami was beaten in double overtime by Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl to win the national title, while Georgia easily handled the Seminoles in a 26-13 romp in the Sugar Bowl.

It’s easy to say Georgia should have taken care of business and beaten Florida, but we’ve now seen how a single loss (a close loss at that) to a quality opponent isn’t nearly as damaging as it once was according to the BCS WOPR.

The Bulldogs and Buckeyes have never met in a game that mattered. Their only meeting was in the 1993 Citrus Bowl, a 21-14 Georgia win. The college football world deserved to see the rematch of these two storied programs in 2003.