Parking deck passes for the 2010 football season went on sale this morning. As usual, South Campus and Hull Street went quickly. Passes still remain in the Carlton Street/Coliseum Deck, the North Campus Deck, and the new Performing Arts Center (PAC) Deck on East Campus. We used to tailgate near the location of the PAC Deck, and I would recommend it to those who might be looking for a new place to park this year. The walk to the stadium is very easy along East Campus Rd. and the railroad tracks, and the improvements to the Gate 6 area several years ago make entry and exit very painless.

Click here to see what’s left to order.

The process was a little smoother this year than it was a year ago. There were still server issues, but that’s to be expected with a quick surge of traffic. At least they waited a few days this year and avoided doing this the first day after the July 4th holiday. Everything was there as it should have been when ordering began at 10 a.m. this morning.

As an aside, I’ve seen reports of individuals scooping up more than a couple of passes in a single order. How this system isn’t somehow tied to the season ticket account is beyond me. You don’t even have to have ordered tickets to gather up as many parking passes as you like. With the online ticket ordering system, is it so hard to 1) check that the person ordering parking is in fact a season ticket holder and 2) limit the parking passes according to the number of season tickets held?

Paul nails several key issues that the new athletic director will have to face over the next several years. I’m especially concerned about retaining Mark Fox. But as soon as he hits the ground – be it six months or a year from now, there are two things Evans’ replacement should see to. Yes, I’m not including anything about football here. Short of facilities needs, the football program just requires a laissez-faire approach. In addition to firming up the strengths of the athletic department, there is one sport that seems out of alignment with its recent history and potential. More on that in a second. The top priority is…

Continue to build on what Evans did well. Michael Adams said he was troubled most by the “loss of potential” upon Damon Evans’ arrest and resignation. It’s frustrating that a competent and respected administrator who had developed a good organization was done in by a personal flaw. Job #1 of Evans’ replacement will be to first do no harm in these areas which have become strengths of the Bulldog program:

• Sound financial management. Membership in the SEC puts you ahead of the game, but it’s easy to take that gravy train for granted and to forget the expense side. Georgia has maintained a healthy financial standing while continuing to invest in facilities improvements, and that shouldn’t change under new leadership.
• Academic emphasis. The Harrick scandal did a lot of damage to the academic reputation of Georgia student-athletes, and a lot has been done to repair that reputation. Georgia’s performance in the APR has been consistently near the top of the SEC. The Rankin Smith Center is an outstanding resource. Class attendance is enforced. None of that is unique to Georgia, but it’s still a culture that needs to be kept up and constantly resupported.
• NCAA compliance. As President Adams noted earlier, there wasn’t a hint of impropriety concerning compliance issues under Evans. Again, compliance is as much cultural as anything.
• Support for basketball. It might prove to be Damon Evans’ most positive legacy. The new practice facility, the ongoing Stegeman Coliseum renovation, and the hiring of Mark Fox have Georgia basketball fans daring to be optimistic about the future. Fox has already started to show results on the court and on the recruiting trail, and he won’t have his hands tied by longstanding concerns about facilities going forward. A new athletic director needs to continue to nurture this turnaround which is still at a very fragile state.

Repair the relationship with baseball. The future of David Perno is just one piece of the puzzle. If the relationship between the program and the athletic department hasn’t been adversarial, it’s still been troubling. The issue of the Nike bats imposed on the team was probably the most public example of the difficulties. Facilities also remain an issue: there are plans for a reconfiguration of Foley Field, now at 20+ years since its last renovation, and work is underway to replace bleachers with chairback seating. There is some sentiment that baseball now occupies the back seat once reserved for basketball. Whether progress requires a change in leadership of the program or just a better relationship between the program and the athletic department is up in the air. We’ve seen the potential of the program over the past decade, and work needs to be done to realize that potential on a much more consistent basis.

Maintaining the cash cow that is football revenue is important, but the program can also do more to grow its other revenue sources. That comes back to a stronger basketball program and investment in baseball. Georgia hoops brings in about $7.3 million and even turns a profit of nearly $1 million, but that revenue is towards the bottom of the pack in the SEC. Not surprising for a program that’s struggled to win, but the possibility for $2-3 million additional dollars is there if the turnaround continues. Baseball is also a potential source of additional revenue, but the capacity of Foley Field is a constraint. The current project to convert bleachers to chairbacks might even reduce capacity. There are no luxury boxes or sources of premium revenue. Can the demand be generated to merit significant investment in the baseball facility?

Michael Adams has a strained relationship – to put it nicely – with many Georgia fans. But facing a possible crisis in the athletic department, Adams has fared about as well as someone in his position can in the week since Damon Evans’ arrest. The upcoming search is still a big part of the process, so we’ll save the standing ovation until the new athletic director is in place. Mark Bradley is dead-on:  Adams “has been tone-perfect in this time of turmoil.”

What’s even more amazing is that an issue that could have been fumbled as badly and publicly as the Harrick mess has instead more or less been one of Adams’ better moments in his relationship with the athletics program.  From his measured response to the initial report to the appropriate settlement to the wise search plan laid out yesterday, consensus support has formed around Adams’ actions every step of the way. Now much of that might have to do with the graphic nature of the police report and Evans’ cooperation – how much choice did Adams have in the matter?

But moving beyond the incident and Evans’ resignation, Adams hit on every big note in his plan.  Frank Crumley might be reluctant to step into the limelight as interim AD, but he – like Dr. Carla Green Williams – are known as competent administrators who will be good stewards of the athletic department even if they aren’t finalists for the job.  Paul has already explained the quality of the search committee, and they’ll protect Georgia’s interests.

More important though is the vision to aim high and look beyond Athens or even Georgia for the successor.  This isn’t a situation where there needs to be a house-cleaning; the remaining organization is very solid.  But fresh perspective and a relative lack of political entanglements at the top won’t be bad things in Athens.  Cynics will claim that Adams just wants to hand-pick someone he can control, but that thinking doesn’t mesh with the goals Adams set out for the search nor the composition of the search committee.

The nature of the search’s vision reflects the reality that a modern athletic director is much more CEO than jock-in-chief. It’s no longer a place for the coach emeritus to finish out his career.  The new AD will have to fight for Georgia’s interests against other titans in the SEC.  They’ll have to scratch to grow the program in the face of strong regional competition and a down economy. Adams has set expectations high, and the new athletic director will be judged against that lofty vision.

Or, he could just send the search committee a photo of Mike Garrett with “the opposite of this” scrawled on it.  Same result.

Redshirt freshman Jordan Love was arrested by University police and charged with obstruction of a police officer Monday night. Love allegedly refused to give his name to an officer after police responded to a complaint that three people were shooting off fireworks near McWhorter Hall. Not smart, but jeez…

We can now look forward to a week of lazy DUI-plus-this-equals-out-of-control-Georgia columns. If Dennis Dodd tries hard enough, he might even be able to tie this arrest to the house fire in Lilburn over the weekend that was caused by fireworks.

UPDATE: The AJC provides additional information that makes it look as if charges against Love could be dropped by the end of the day. It also doesn’t paint the UGA police department in the best light.

“Are you satisfied with the job Mark Richt has done?”

I just don’t see how he can come back from this.

The big question now: was President Adams made completely aware of what would be in the police report when the two spoke on Thursday? If not, Evans has sealed his fate. If so, all of that wasn’t enough to bring about a very strong recommendation that Evans resign? I understand President Adams wanting to confer with legal staff and follow the book on something like this, but I’m amazed Evans made it through Thursday if the additional details in the report were known.

It was the perfect modern apology. Emotional, apparently sincere, and generic. Evans is deeply sorry for the shame and black cloud he’s brought upon the University. He has his shortcomings – don’t we all? If you relied upon Evans’ statement, you wouldn’t have known if he had been arrested for DUI, littering on North Campus, or kicking Russ the bulldog. Of course that’s the way it has to be – no lawyer this side of Lionel Hutz is going to let his client speak to the specifics of an incident with charges still pending.

Mark Bradley wants him gone yesterday, but that’s not how it works. Evans has taken resignation off the table, so Evans’ future lies with Michael Adams. There’s a difference between a forced resignation and termination, and the latter won’t happen without a whole lot of negotiation and bases being covered. There’s a lot of the story still out there – Evans’ past, how candid he was with Adams, and what comes of the charges themselves.

David Hale sums up the feeling among a lot of us that this could end up going either way.

The biggest question: Do I think Evans will keep his job? Honestly, I don’t know…But the truth is… this is going to be very, very hard for Evans to overcome at Georgia. Which isn’t to say it can’t be done.

This is going to be a riveting decision in the respect that it could go one way or the other and no one would be surprised. The case can be (and has been) made for both choices and all sorts of disciplinary permutations. It seems incredulous that such an allegation, if true, wouldn’t mean the end for a high-profile administrator on a campus that’s put the issue of alcohol under such a glaring spotlight. If he remains on, it’s going to be a long and painful – and public – road back. This will always be a black mark on his reputation. Would it be better for him and the University for that process to occur someplace other than under the glare of public scrutiny? That’s part of Adams’ decision.

In either case, it’s just a sad, sad story all around. One of Georgia’s own, a home-grown star in the world of athletics administration, has fallen. Then you have the damage brought on his family. Most importantly, it’s no small thing that this night just ended with an arrest. Evans’ decisions could have had a much more tragic outcome. The University community on up to the governor’s office is very tuned in to the subject of DUI right now.

If Evans remains on, how does he go forward? On this point I’m with Kyle – Evans has more to own up to if he is really interested in redemption. I understand that the legal process makes that impossible right now, but there will come a time when it’s necessary. Not for my sake – he owes me nothing. In terms of credibility with the student-athletes at Georgia, the ability to be frank and candid about the experience will go a long way towards rebuilding his character. Once this is over, I’d even suggest that he re-cut that infamous PSA in much more personal terms as a way of addressing his shortcomings head-on.

Is it really impossible for Evans to maintain credibility with the people within the athletic department and also the student-athletes under his direction? I don’t think so. Give the kids more credit – right and wrong aren’t foreign concepts. Certainly a measure of discipline is expected and due even if he isn’t let go, but the program isn’t going to become Ciudad Juárez because of Evans’ bad example. It’s also not as if the student-athletes are guided by day-to-day interaction with the athletic director. He’s there at games and certainly available when needed, but most of the experiences the student-athletes will have when it comes to building character and discipline comes from their individual coaching staffs.

A few random observations to close with:

1 – I do credit Evans for taking questions. Some of them were tough and pointed, and he answered them. The press conference was open and carried live. He could have issued a written statement and then hid behind spokesmen and lawyers, and I’m sure someone advised him to do just that. I mean, it’s not like he was changing jobs or anything.

2 – Not to dig up the ghosts of Dooley/Adams, but there were concerns when Evans was hired about the autonomy a relatively young and inexperienced athletic director would have under the supervision of President Adams. To put it more crudely, would Evans just be a yes-man? Some still think so. I thought that unfair to Evans, and – maybe I’ve got my head in the sand – the partnership of Evans and Adams has been productive. That said, how will this decision change their relationship going forward if Adams decides to retain Evans – will Evans feel that he “owes” Adams?

3 – There are a lot of lessons to take from this story from Evans’ alleged actions, but his passenger provides an important lesson too: if you’re in the car while the driver is being questioned by the police, shut up. Ms. Courtney Fuhrmann could have easily remained anonymous in this story, and it seems as if she wants to, but now her name and mug shot are all over the most salacious story to hit the UGA beat in a while. [insert Ron White joke about having the right to remain silent]

UPDATE: Evans’ first court date has been set for July 12th when he will answer to the DUI charge in Atlanta. He’s consulted with Athens lawyer Ed Tolley, but Tolley cannot represent Evans due to Tolley’s longstanding relationship with the athletic department.

As we expected, the final NACDA Directors’ Cup standings for 2010 were released today. Georgia was in 17th place pending the baseball postseason, and the Bulldogs ended up being passed by Texas, LSU, and Minnesota in the final rankings. As Marc Weiszer reports, the 20th place finish is Georgia’s lowest since 1997.

The trend isn’t good, but it’s not like football or men’s basketball was in that much better shape during Georgia’s better Directors’ Cup finishes. The drop-off has more to do with sports like gymnastics and the spring sports that have usually contributed to Georgia’s more successful years. The Bulldogs have had several national titles and second-place finishes in football and baseball during this “slide”, so it’s not like the wheels have come off the program.

But a drop into the 20s wasn’t going to be a great bit of news for athletic director Damon Evans. If only that were the worst thing he’d face today.

UGASports.com dropped a bombshell when they reported this morning that Evans was arrested last night in Atlanta for DUI and was released on bail from the Atlanta city jail. Other Atlanta media have since confirmed, and Fox 5 was able to provide this stunning mugshot:

The facts seem to be these: Evans and an unnamed passenger were pulled over around 11:55 p.m. at Roswell Road and Chastain Drive in Atlanta. He refused a Breathalyzer test at the scene. Evans was charged with “charged with DUI and driving in an improper lane” according to the UGASports.com report, citing an Atlanta City Jail spokesperson.

Evans is headed back to Athens, and it will be a very interesting afternoon. WSB-TV reports that “UGA President Michael Adams said he would make a statement “soon.”” I’d be surprised if this led to Evans’ dismissal, but you never know – there are sure to be more details to come. There will also naturally be questions about Evans’ ability to lead a program that’s seen more than its share of alcohol-related incidents over the past few years.

At the very least, it’s definitely going to make that second half DUI public service announcement a little awkward.

UPDATE: A press conference is scheduled for around 6:00. Meanwhile, the identity of the car’s passenger has been released, and it’s not at all good news for Evans.

Even with an 8-5 record, there were several bright spots in the 2009 football season – the win in Atlanta chief among them.

One game that has never quite gotten its due is the win over Arkansas in Fayetteville. I know that it seemed dodgy. You had Cox playing out of his mind and standing toe-to-toe in a shootout. You had Richard Samuel hit the hole and have his one shining moment at tailback. It’s not that you wondered how Georgia got out of there with the win; you saw the offense score at will. It was just so unexpected and, as it turned out, oh so necessary. It’s not that Georgia beat an SEC contender, but the 2009 Dawgs lost games against lesser teams. In retrospect, the win seems even more improbable because Georgia had to overcome two huge factors that usually meant success for the 2009 Razorbacks:

• The game was Arkansas’ only home loss of the season. The Razorbacks have won just a single road SEC game under Petrino – a close 25-22 win in 2008 against an Auburn team circling the drain. But they were much better at home last season and ended up routing South Carolina, Mississippi State, and Auburn in Fayetteville.
• The game was Arkansas’ only loss in which Ryan Mallett completed over 50% of his passes. Mallett of course had a ridiculous day against Georgia with 21-of-39 passing (53.8%), 408 yards, and 5 touchdowns. As TSK notes, “Arkansas was 7-1 in games in which Mallett completed more than 50 percent of his passes.”

Arkansas’ trip to Athens in 2010 is going to be a popular upset pick – if Arkansas isn’t outright favored. The Hogs will be 2-0 after a pair of cupcakes. Mallett’s likely to be ultra-accurate and put up huge numbers in those wins. The Bulldog defense might or might not be better than the unit that gave up 41 a year ago, but they’ll still be in their first few games under a new system and going up against an extremely talented passer. Georgia will have been tested on the road at Columbia, and it will be Arkansas’ first road game of the year. A win over Georgia would certainly be a win that legitimizes the preseason hype poured on Arkansas this year, but will they have learned how to win big games on the road, and is their defense going to be any better against a Georgia offense that will be plenty loaded itself?

South Carolina won the College World Series last night, and the accomplishment gives them their first national title in any men’s sport. It has to be a big day in Gamecock land, and congratulations are due. Any observer of SEC baseball knows that this was no fluke – South Carolina has been a solid program for many years now and are often a legitimate contender in the SEC under one of the conference’s top coaches, Ray Tanner. That they’d go on a little tear and win it all at Omaha is not surprising, and it has to make it all the more enjoyable that they got to eliminate Clemson along the way. The story of Bayler Teal and his relationship with the team adds a much deeper meaning to the championship, and it makes it seem to us that there couldn’t have been any other outcome.

But South Carolina’s title serves to underscore an unpleasant point around these parts. Georgia is joined now only by Vanderbilt as the only SEC East programs without a national title in any of the “big 3” men’s sports since SEC expansion in 1992. Seven of the 12 SEC members have managed the feat, and Auburn would really like to remind you of their 2004 football season. A club whose other members include Vandy and the Mississippi schools is not the company Georgia wants to be keeping.

As Kyle noted the other day, track season wrapping up means the end of competition for Bulldog student-athletes for the 2009-2010 academic year. No one from Michael Adams to Damon Evans is pretending that it was a great year for Bulldog athletics, and even another second-place finish for the SEC All-Sports trophy does little to mask the disappointment.

The final standings for the NACDA Director’s Cup will be released on July 1st. Georgia is currently in 17th place with only baseball left to figure in to the final tally. It’s possible that both LSU and Texas could pass Georgia based on their participation in the baseball postseason. If that occurs, Georgia would drop below their 18th place finish last year for the worst performance as a program in well over a decade. We’ve been over this ground before, but it’s not an impressive trend for the athletic department under Damon Evans. But, hey – we’re still rolling in cash, right?

This might be the best news I’ll get all summer: Georgiadogs.com is changing networks.

I don’t know of anyone who has had a generally pleasant experience with media from Georgiadogs.com. Between browser incompatibilities (this isn’t 1998), constant buffering, and poor quality, it’s been a chore just to watch the occasional ballgame or get any kind of value for the monthly subscription. I can get news elsewhere, but the site’s exclusive broadcasts of games made it something you had to deal with.

The move to the CBSSports.com network is outstanding news. I’ve seen the CBS product in action for other schools, and it blows away the experience I’ve had to this point with streaming media from UGA. CBS intends to continue improvement with “a new Flash-based audio/video player”, integrated stats (familiar to anyone who watched March Madness On Demand), and mobile offerings for iPhone, Blackberry, and Android platforms. It’s no surprise that CBS has “the online rights to 55 of the 73 schools from the big six conferences” – they know what they’re doing, and I’m relieved to see UGA address the woeful experience on their site.

I’ve been playing in the mountains for the past week, but I was glad to come home and see the return of two old mainstays on my reading list:

• Most everyone has noted Doug’s triumphant return over at Hey Jenny Slater. We win because Doug’s back writing, but it’s even better news that the circumstances that forced him into radio silence in the first place are in the past.
• I’d also like to welcome back Kanu’s Dodgy at Best. His topics are too varied to pigeonhole his site as just another Dawg blog, but how many takes on Grantham’s 3-4 can you read? This is an especially good time for Kanu to get it going again – if you have an interest in the “other” football, there aren’t many better reads among our own than he and Elkon.

It was big of these guys to recognize the vacuum left by my absence and start cranking again after so long. I hope they’ll keep it up – I might not have to post again until September.

We noted last week that the minimum point total for new season tickets would be lower, but the exact number hadn’t been announced yet. Marc Weiszer lets us know today that the figure has been set at $1,550.

It’s worth repeating the points we made last week. First, Georgia still has more demand than they have season tickets. Some orders will be refunded. That’s an enviable position considering the economy and how many schools even in the football-crazy southeast are faring. Second, though the stories are mostly about the decline in demand from 2008’s insane $10,000+ minimum, 2008 is looking more and more like an outlying spike. The current minimum of 1,550 is more in line with the 2007 minimum of 1,991.

Congratulations to the Georgia legend who is being welcomed into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame Saturday night – a long overdue honor for one of the greatest to play the game. Edwards made a name for herself at Georgia, but she excelled at the international level where she played in a record five Olympics and brought home four gold medals.

Edwards is the third person associated with the Lady Dogs program to be enshrined. She joins Katrina McClain and coach Andy Landers.

With the movement of Colorado and Nebraska, we’ve begun the much-anticipated shuffling among the major conferences. With the process set in motion, the question now is how far conferences will go during this round of expansion. Is the 16-team Pac-10 going to happen? Are other conferences going to be as aggressive or settle with 12 or 14 members?

The race towards megaconferences might have one interesting side-effect: the rise of the divisions as their own unique entities underneath the umbrellas of the larger conferences.

In a 16-team conference, you’ll have two eight-team divisions. Yes, there are alternative structures (see Clay Travis’s 4×4 arrangement), but most conferences will choose the traditional model and tie everything together with a championship game.

Currently the Pac-10 is the only major conference that has a nine-game league schedule, and that is (was) in order to facilitate a round-robin schedule. The practice actually puts the league at a disadvantage relative to other conferences in terms of bowl eligibility. It will be interesting to see if the expanded Pac-10 continues the nine-game schedule or if it bows to pressure to be at parity with other leagues who can schedule eight conference games and use that other game for a nonconference opponent of varying quality.

The number of conference games is a big deal to coaches and a key point going forward with expansion. Mark Richt said recently, “As far as I’m concerned, you can add more teams, but I just don’t want to play any more league games.” Richt can’t be alone in that sentiment – unless the nine-game schedule is imposed on all conferences as the new norm, those signing up for an extra conference game are making things tougher for their teams.

But an eight-game slate in a 16-team conference all but cuts off one side from the other. You’ll have seven league games in your own division and then one against the other side. If that one game rotates, it ends any traditional rivalries against teams in the other division. Even with nine conference games, you’re still only playing two schools out of eight from the other division, so things aren’t all that much better in either scenario.

At that point, the larger megaconference is just an administrative abstraction between its divisions. It exists for revenue-sharing purposes and for the clout it brings negotiating for collective deals and postseason positions. I realize we’re not that far away under the current structure, but the solidarity of a single Big 10 or Pac-10 is gone now. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. But for the conference championship games, we’re almost back to the days of eight-team conferences.

Divisions in our future of 16-team conferences will take on a much greater importance. They’ll be relatively more isolated and even develop identities of their own. The Pac-10 will have its Route 66 / Tom Joad schools and then the Pac-8 schools of the 1960s and 1970s. Nebraska’s division of the Big 10 will certainly have a different feel than one oriented around the Rust Belt. Give me Alabama and Auburn in the SEC East, and we’ll send LSU a postcard every now and then.

This idea about giving the new Pac-10 two automatic BCS berths is definitely full of itself, but it’s going to be the kind of thing you’ll hear more often as these 8-team divisions begin to take on lives of their own. The Senator asks, “What in the hell do they even need a conference for in the first place?” This is a perfect example of the conference-as-abstraction that allows two more or less distinct entities to pool together for TV deals and revenue sharing and still claim two separate places in the lucrative BCS.

I know that other Georgia fans and I are wondering if the SEC will dip their toe into the expansion market and push towards 14 or 16 teams. It’s not too early to start thinking about what we’d like our SEC East “conference” to look like.