UGA looks to continue strong nonconference tradition

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The days when the Georgia Bulldogs never left the Southeast to play a football game have passed. The school's administration has made clear that it wants to display the Georgia "G" in the far corners of the continental United States.

In 2008, 2009 and 2010, Georgia will have played nonconference games in college football outposts like Tempe, Ariz. (Arizona State) and Stillwater, Okla. (Oklahoma State). It has future games scheduled in scenic locales like Boulder, Colo. (Colorado) and Eugene, Ore. (Oregon).

Although the possibilities seem endless, two traditional trendy national picks would attract many Bulldogs, no matter how far they had to travel.

"I'd love to see us play Notre Dame or another big national power like that, like a USC (Southern California)," Georgia punter Drew Butler said. "It seems like Notre Dame is always in the national spotlight, no matter how good or bad they are. That would be a matchup between North and South, too.

"I'd like to see us play just about any big-time team, especially to start the season. That would bring a lot of attention to Georgia as well."

If Georgia plays Notre Dame or USC, it won't be anytime soon. The high-profile portion of Georgia's nonconference schedule is full until the Bulldogs complete a home-and-home set with Oregon in 2016. In 2017, Georgia coach Mark Richt would be 57 years old and in his 17th season with the Bulldogs. Any freshmen who could play 2017 are currently in the sixth grade.

Georgia is in a holding pattern and doesn't anticipate completing negotiations with a high-profile opponent until the Southeastern Conference finalizes its league schedules past 2016, Georgia Associate Athletic Director of Internal Affairs Arthur Johnson said. Johnson is the point man for football scheduling.

But looking ahead, USC has not released its nonconference opponents for 2017, and Notre Dame has only released five of its opponents that season. So it is possible.

Formula for scheduling

Georgia has to work around a couple of non-negotiable factors when it looks for nonconference opponents. It already has an in-state rivalry game against a BCS-conference opponent in Georgia Tech. It also does not want to give up a second home date for a neutral site because it already plays Florida in Jacksonville, Fla.

"Our philosophy on non-BCS type games is to have as many home games as possible," Johnson said. "We don't want any more than two BCS conference games, with Georgia Tech being one of them."

Georgia has room for four nonconference games per year. Johnson, with input from Georgia athletic director Damon Evans and Richt, wants to schedule two home games against non-BCS opponents, with one of those presumably being homecoming fodder and the other coming from a mid-major conference. Georgia Tech from the ACC is the third nonconference game, which leaves one more BCS opponent per season.

Georgia has three opponents from BCS conferences on this year's schedule. But that was a quirk and shouldn't happen again, Johnson said.

"We know we're going to play Georgia Tech every year and they're a BCS team," Johnson said. "We want to get one more BCS team to go with Georgia Tech and we're committed to taking the Georgia brand into different parts of the country."

Georgia has secured home-and-home series against Colorado (Big 12, 2010), Louisville (Big East, 2011, 2012), Clemson (ACC, 2013, 2014) and Oregon (Pac 10, 2015, 2016).

"It's great to play in big games against teams from different parts of the country," Georgia linebacker Rennie Curran said. "It's fun to see how differently they do things in places like Arizona State. It's fun to see different places and different people."

Only South Carolina has two BCS opponents on this year's schedule, North Carolina State and intra-state rival Clemson, both from the ACC. Every other

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