Find the video here: https://www.facebook.com/UGAChapelBell (or see the video directly at this link).

It wouldn’t have been hard to top the old spot or most any boring commercial from that genre, but the team knocked it out of the park with this one. Great job, and kudos to R.E.M. for their participation. It never leaves you…

But season passes for parking decks (along with per-game RV parking) remain on sale, and three of the four decks are still available. The price for a parking deck pass is $120 – not bad at all for a guaranteed and sheltered parking spot. It’s certainly cheaper (over the course of a season) than any of the municipal or private lots and decks around downtown or campus, and you don’t have to join the mad dash first thing in the morning to claim any of the sparse open free parking around the periphery of the campus.

It’s sad that this is what it’s come to when so many of us remember just pulling up anywhere on campus, but those days are long gone.

It’s much too soon for many of McGarity’s actions to have much impact on the field or in the classroom. The academic performance of Georgia’ student-athletes has been strong for some time now, and he’ll do well to sustain or even slightly improve that area. The most recent APR numbers demonstrate that the emphasis on academic success remains as strong as ever. Georgia maintained its strong financial position, but it would have been hard to derail that train. McGarity does seem a little more willing to spend and invest some of the program’s surplus.

A new head coach for volleyball last December was McGarity’s first and only high-profile change directly affecting one of Georgia’s programs. There have been other decisions and changes which might not bear the stamp of the athletic director but with which he was probably involved. The overhaul of conditioning and nutrition for Georgia football is almost certainly one of those changes. Those changes weren’t just limited to football; the department will invest over $700,000 in “student-athlete welfare” programs and personnel.

All in all, it’s a relatively stable time for the athletic department, and that’s a welcome change from last summer. Of course there’s some tension around Mark Richt and the future of the football program, but that’s an issue that won’t come to a head for several months, and we hope it never has to come up at all. With the program financially and academically sound and McGarity’s foundation pretty well established, he can start looking at other areas of his agenda.

One of those areas might be facilities. Georgia announced its most recent facilites master plan in 2008. Some of those projects have already been completed. Football fans enjoyed Reed Alley last season – a major improvement for fans on the north side of the stadium. The transformation of Stegeman Coliseum last year was stunning, and Georgia got a big impact without having to build a new arena. Most recently the expansion of the Butts-Mehre facility allowed the football program some elbow room, provided a high-tech showpiece for the program, and provided some much-needed upgrades in the weight room and film room.

Those projects and the master plan all came on or were begun on Damon Evans’ watch. Throw in the impressive practice facility for basketball and gymnastics, and Georgia had quite a number of major capital facilities projects over the past couple of years which are now just wrapping up under McGarity. Before we pass the torch to McGarity and urge him to move on to the next big facilities project, all of the new buildings and improvements left the program with quite a bit of debt. That was part of the plan, but it’s also something you don’t shrug off even with Georgia’s strong financial standing.

Of course facilities projects don’t always involved big, hairy multi-million dollar construction work. There are always maintenence and small improvements, and the current budget includes a few of those. We saw chairbacks installed at Foley last year. There will be an upgraded video display at Sanford Stadium this year, and the Coliseum is also getting some A/V work. But there is a pause in major projects, and that’s probably for the best. There’s only so much debt the athletic department can take on, and there is no magical raising of that debt ceiling. The Athletic Association’s debt as of a year ago was around $95 million.

Other than those ongoing improvements and tweaks each year, we might have to wait a while to see where McGarity will take Georgia’s facilities. But as the debt begins to be paid off, we can turn our eye to other projects on that 2008 master plan. The expansion of Sanford Stadium jumps out. We’ve been over the pros and cons of expansion, but now doesn’t seem to be the right time. Unfortunately that’s mainly due to a football product that isn’t as in demand as it was three years ago, and the program plays its highest-profile games elsewhere. There just isn’t the motivation or pressure to expand now. The future of Foley Field is also an interesting topic. It’s been 20 years since the last major work on the baseball facility, and it’s not among the SEC’s best.

With Sanford expansion talk cooling down, the project always near the top of the football fan’s wish list is the indoor facility. One thing the Butts-Mehre expansion didn’t include was a full-blown indoor practice facility. Yes, there’s a small covered turf area where the team could feasibly walk through some drills in a pinch. No one is confusing it with a substitute practice field where the day’s work can be done. For fans it’s a no-brainer. [rival] has one, so we must. The debate about whether such a facility is a priority is a whole other topic, but it’s there on the master plan, so we’ll have to talk about it eventually.

One thing we do know is that Richt has been consistent about the building being more than a roof over a practice field:

Richt clearly wants to sell the project as being more than a place for the football team to practice a few times a year. He said there would be a 300-meter track around the field for indoor meets. The dining room would be used by regular students. Tailgating and other game-day activities would be held there, too.

The price tag for such a facility 5-10 years ago was around $30 million. We assume it might be higher now, but how much higher depends on how badly construction and related firms need the work in the current economy. Still, it’s a significant project at any time as the Coliseum facility was. A few recent projects at other schools show the spectrum of what can be done for a certain price point. Tech’s basic roof-over-a-field facility will cost only $6-7 million with at least half of that coming from private funds. Oklahoma State’s more ambitious facility will cost around $16 million and will be paid for with a private donation. Auburn likewise is working on a $16 million facility.

Would Georgia need the extras that would make its facility cost twice as much? The indoor track and related amenities are important features that most of these other football-only facilities won’t have, so yes – there would be a higher cost. But much of the reception space, offices, and other elements of the original design are included in the Butts-Mehre expansion. There just isn’t the need anymore for a grand football palace since we already more or less have one along E. Rutherford St.

Greg McGarity has had plenty to do just getting his team in place and running over the past year. There’s no question he’s willing to put the people and resources behind a worthwhile project, but it would be interesting to hear his thoughts on the future of some of these facilities projects as well as Georgia’s debt outlook. If we look to his experience at Florida as we have on several other topics, it’s worthwhile to note that the Gators are one of the few other major programs around the region that have, so far, avoided participating in the indoor practice facility arms race.

With the big news out of the way, there’s some interesting information in the details. Georgia’s football program managed to improve on a score that was second-best for the SEC a year ago. Men’s hoops, at 946, was the lowest score of all sports but a) is still over 20 points clear of danger and b) improved over last year’s score. In all, 11 of 20 sports improved their APR score, 5 dropped, and 4 stayed level.

It’s also worth noting that Georgia’s six-year graduation rate for student-athletes was a solid 77%.

As Weiszer points out, baseball can be problematic for APR due in part to the transient nature of the sport. Without full scholarships to offer, players often move in and out of programs, and junior college signings are frequent. Aligning the academic progress of so many players who entered the program at different stages of their academic careers can be a tall job. The Diamond Dawgs dropped into the problem range six years ago with an APR score of 916, but they’ve improved every year since and stand now with a respectable 952.

• Set up time is now five hours before kickoff instead of four.
• Tables are now allowed to be up to six feet long.
• Tents are allowed again.

Keep in mind that the rest of last year’s restrictions will still apply. No generators, TVs, grills, and so on.

The SGA proposed several of the modifications back in January, and the University adopted them. There was concern that tailgating at Myers Quad would be restricted following the scene after the Georgia Tech game, but University SVP Tim Burgess said that no regulations would be put in place at Myers.

From the same Red & Black story, we also get this:

Finally, the Cabinet also approved a new service animal policy, which requires all dogs on campus to be registered as service animals.

The plan would allow students to transfer tickets directly to another student or contribute them back to a ticket bank by Thursday of a game week. Students who don’t use their tickets or don’t contribute them would receive a penalty point. Three such points would lead to disqualification for future tickets.

I know we’ll get the same response we got about North Campus: it was students/visitors/Tech fans. I’m not denying that; we saw several Tech tailgates set up in the area. The bigger point is that this outcome isn’t going to stand any better on Myers Quad or anywhere else on campus than it did on North Campus.

So it’s no shock to learn that the University is thinking of extending restrictions to Myers Quad. The school’s Gameday Committee met for the first time since the season last week and, as they do every year, began evaluating Georgia’s game day policies. Last week we noted that the SGA recommended easing restrictions on North Campus. It’s way to early in the process to say what will or won’t be done for the 2011 season, but Matt Winston, assistant to President Adams, noted that Myers Quad was among the areas they are scrutinizing.

The responsibility ultimately falls on the tailgaters, but the University also can’t keep playing whack-a-mole every year to react to where the mess pops up next. Will they go down the road of extending the more restrictive North Campus regulations to larger areas of campus? Or are there things (patrol, enforcement) the University can do on Gameday to address the groups causing the most problems while leaving campus open to the responsible majority who just want to enjoy a fun football Saturday?

The proposal had met with strong opposition from Georgia Tech officials and alumni who felt that increased investment at Georgia’s lone public engineering school was enough to meet the state’s future needs. The vote was a close 9-8 which reflected how much of a political battle the proposal had become. The governor and certain state legislators had become involved, and it remains to be seen whether opponents will try to find some sort of legislative roadblock when the legislature convenes in January.

But Georgia Tech is only part of the story. It’s also about Auburn, Clemson, Tennessee, and the other regional schools with engineering programs that attract engineering students from Georgia that for one reason or another don’t go to Tech. As Lee Shearer explains in the Banner-Herald this week, state schools are not producing enough engineers to meet the state’s needs. Even though Georgia Tech produces nearly 800 engineering graduates each year, “fewer than half Tech’s graduates remain in Georgia” following graduation. These programs at UGA (along with similar ones at Georgia Southern) will give Georgians quality in-state alternatives to going out-of-state with the goal of keeping more of them at home when they enter the labor force.

Of course there’s also a financial angle. As President Adams argued, “the new degrees will give UGA access to millions in federal grants and research money.” That’s not necessarily a zero-sum game with Tech; it’s likely a net increase of research money coming into the state. With a medical school and now an engineering program coming to Athens during this decade, the University of Georgia will be moving into a different class of public universities.

If none of that matters to you, just know that there are some fuming Yellow Jackets tonight, and count it as the first of several wins over Tech to come in the next month.

It’s not a new development, and athletic department officials have been watching it for more than a year. Claude Felton explained, “We have data from fall last year and this year until this point. And the students that all have tickets are not all coming to the games.” New athletic director Greg McGarity nails how big of an issue this is. “We’re suffering as a program, as an institution,” McGarity said. “When we’re on TV and they show the stadium, there’s 5,000 or 6,000 empty seats — that’s embarrassing.” If you were at the Arkansas game, you know what McGarity is talking about.

Based on those observations that some student tickets go unused for every home game, Georgia will sell an additional 1,000 student tickets for the upcoming Tennessee game to underclassmen who received a split season ticket package that didn’t include the Tennessee game. The hope is to fill, or at least come closer to filling, the student sections.

It’s a short-term solution, and McGarity is already talking about revamping the student ticket process as soon as next season. His experience at Florida should help, but he also plans to study how other major programs distribute student tickets.

“The intent is to how can we provide a system that will allow enough students in to where we can manage it and know that Thursday at 5 o’clock that we have ‘x’ amount of seats left that we can either put on sale or reissue to students that didn’t qualify for tickets,” McGarity said. “How can we? That’s our challenge. So, we’re gonna benchmark other institutions to see how they do that.”

We all know the current state of the team, but the season wasn’t in the tank heading into the Arkansas game. It’s probably going to end up being the highest-profile home game of the year, but student turnout was abysmal and noticed. The students who were at the game were loud and involved as they almost always are. They helped the crowd that stayed for the entire game make a difference during Georgia’s comeback. They’re not the problem. Even with the team struggling this year, there are thousands of students who would love to go to the games, and I’m glad to see the athletic director making this issue a priority.

Sure enough, the Red and Black reports that just a pep band will be supporting Georgia at South Carolina. Did Georgia suddenly come up short of cash? Did a greedy athletic department want to sell those seats to fans? Nope. It all has to do with other SEC schools and some contrived notion of fairness:

“The rest of the athletic associations in the SEC are hurting a little bit, whereas ours is sitting on a budget this year so we are all right…So to be fair to everyone, they cut one of our band trips because all the other band organizations cut their band trips by one.”

Are you kidding me? Because some other SEC programs have to cut back band trips, the school will voluntarily hold back its loudest group of supporters in a key SEC opener on the road. South Carolina will have enough of a homefield advantage without keeping 3/4 of the Redcoats home. Why have a successful program and a budget in the black if you’re not going to use that advantage? Georgia isn’t going to cut back its recruiting budget or its facilities plans because some other SEC school can’t keep up, so why do it here?

I know UGA has made kneecapping itself into an art form, but this is ridiculous.

For those tailgating elsewhere on campus, they’ll still be affected by several new rules:

• No pull-behind items (trailers, cookers, etc.)
• No golf carts or ATVs
• No parking on sidewalks (expanded to include Carlton St.)
• The ban on setting up tailgates (tents, tables, etc.) in parking spaces will be reemphasized, to include those areas controlled by the Athletic Association.

Fans with any questions about tailgating rules, parking, or traffic plans should visit the Gameday Gameplan site.

Construction will affect two permitted campus lots. Hull Street will be temporarily closed from Baxter Street to Florida Avenue, and the Baxter Lot can only be accessed through the East Hull lot. The Physical Plant lot is being repaired, but no spaces will be lost…you’ll just be in a work zone.

Once at the stadium, fans on the north side won’t be able to miss the new Reed Plaza. We’ve talked about the Reed Alley project many times here over the past couple of years, and now this facility eight years in the making is finally available for fans to enjoy. Access to the stadium from the Gate 2 area around the curve of the north stands will be improved.

Regrettable vendor choices aside, the new Reed Plaza and its 30,000 square feet should be at least as big a shot in the arm to the north side of the stadium as the reconstructed Gate 6 project was a few years ago. It’s just more of everything – more space, more restrooms, more concessions options, and did I mention more space? Though the project will be dedicated on Friday, sources in Athens are telling us that some finishing touches might not be in place in time for the opener. Regardless, the plaza will be open and usable on game day.

Once inside the stadium, fans will have access to a new text message system to deal with everything from unruly fans to medical emergencies. If you need help inside the stadium, text DAWGS, the issue, and your location to 69050. There was an interesting post on the DawgVent a few weeks back about enhanced cell coverage inside the stadium from many of the major providers…I’ll believe it when I can send a text out.

That automatic suspension is gone. Instead, “under the new system, hearing panels from the Office of Judicial Programs will have more authority to regulate punishments suitable for specific cases.” University president Michael Adams warns students not to consider the change “a free pass on alcohol violations.” In fact, the greater latitude given to disciplinary panels might allow for “even more significant penalties” based on the severity of the incident.

The flexibility in the new policy “was designed to differentiate between a student caught with a beer in a dorm refrigerator and a DUI-related offense.” Vice President for Student Affairs Rodney Bennett expects that “the changes will ease and reduce the number of minor incidents that clog the system under the old rules, and it will allow officials to focus more effectively on the more serious alcohol and drug violations.”

This change in policy is significant for student-athletes because, well, it’s kind of hard to participate in a sport if you’re suspended for a semester. A second arrest during his or her probationary period was essentially an automatic season-long suspension for a student-athlete. To be clear – the revised policy does not mean lighter discipline for drug or alcohol-related incidents, and we’re not even talking about what a coach might decide to do based on program or athletic department guidelines. But the change to the University policy does allow the disciplinary panels to consider alternatives and also take into account the severity of the incident.

Senior linebacker Akeem Hebron experienced the consequences of the old policy. Hebron was arrested twice during the early part of 2007 for underage possession of alcohol. The second arrest triggered the automatic semester suspension meaning that he’d miss the 2007 fall semester – basically his entire redshirt freshman season. Instead of remaining inactive he transferred to Georgia Military College for the 2007 season.

To his credit, Hebron kept clean, remained on track academically, and was accepted back to the University and the Georgia football program in time for the 2008 season. His story since has been one of perseverance. He was a promising prospect regarded as highly as Stafford, Moreno, and Rashad Jones from the 2006 class. He was mentioned as a possible starter headed into 2007 before his suspension. He had a promising return in the 2008 G-Day game, but a fracture dislocation of the left ankle at LSU ended his 2008 season and put him at a big disadvantage for the 2009 season. He missed all of spring practice in 2009 and had a minimal impact before recording three tackles in the bowl game.

We can’t speculate on how Hebron might’ve been handled under the new policy. Causing a disturbance while underage and intoxicated downtown is somewhere between “a beer in a dorm refrigerator” and a DUI, and a long-term suspension might have come down from either the University or coach anyway. It’s now Hebron’s senior season, and it’s been a long way back from suspension and injury. He hopes to find success in the new scheme with a new coach, but he’s currently listed third at one of the inside linebacker spots.

• Tailgating on North Campus will be allowed beginning four (4) hours before kickoff.
• The following items will not be allowed on North Campus on gamedays:
  • Tents
  • Kegs
  • Generators
  • Televisions
  • Amplified music
  • Grills or cookers of any type
  • Tables larger than 4 ft. long
  • Household furniture (folding chairs not included)

What’s considered “North Campus?” This area:

North Campus is defined as the area bounded by Broad Street, Lumpkin Street, Baldwin Street and Jackson Street (including, but not limited to, the quadrangle between Broad Street and Old College, the quadrangle between Old College and the Main Library, and Herty Field).

But it’s not just North Campus affected by new rules for 2010. These following changes will apply to “all parking areas” controlled by UGA:

• No pull-behind items (trailers, cookers, etc.)
• No golf carts or ATVs
• No parking on sidewalks (expanded to include Carlton St.)
• The ban on setting up tailgates (tents, tables, etc.) in parking spaces will be reemphasized, to include those areas controlled by the Athletic Association.

With so much of tailgating already pushed to the periphery of campus due to the Athletic Association, these additional changes will only serve to push people further off campus. Downtown can’t handle the crush of people. It’s not as if people are going to start waiting until 4 hours before kickoff to come to Athens – traffic won’t allow it. The one thing helping congestion prior to games was that arrival could be spaced out across the day, especially for later kickoffs. Compressing that down to a few hours will push people off campus and onto the streets which will not be able to handle the overflow.

We’ve maintained that many problems could have been avoided with stricter enforcement of existing laws (underage possession and littering chief among them), but it sounds as if the University has gone with the nuclear option here. You can’t say we weren’t warned…North Campus tailgaters have been urged to clean up their act for several years now. I’m glad we tailgate off-campus, but it looks as if we’ll have a lot more company soon.