Arkansas is a pivotal game for us every year, and tension has developed after a few memorable contests. Maybe kind of like Auburn-LSU. You guys aren’t really traditional rivals to the same degree as you are with Bama, UGA, or Tech, but the Tiger Bowl has been so big over the last several years that it’s become more of a rivalry than it used to be.

Tennessee may become more of a rival if we can play them competitively consistently. Florida, on the other hand, is only a rival because of Spurrier and the 2005 win / 2006 close loss. We have had very little success against the Gators and I don’t see that changing any time soon, even if I’ll be predicting victory this time next year.

By the way, I’d be interested in hearing rationalizations from those of you that are voting for teams other than UGA. I consider this question no contest.

but a team that beats us 51-31 and 56-6 is not our rival.

With all due respect to your football program, which is undoubtedly stronger than ours, the reason that you don’t get to lay the smack down on us is because you’re usually not as good as Florida. The talent gap between USC and UGA just isn’t as large. There’s a gap there, which is why you usually beat us, but it’s not huge. The same goes for UT several years back before they started sliding. The Vols usually beat us by larger margins than you did back then because they just that good.

I’ve heard a lot of rationalizations from UGA fans about why we play you tough, but most of it just seems like spin to me. There may be something to the idea that USC and now Spurrier get up for the game, and in some years Kyle King’s theory that we slide late in the year due to injuries revealing our lack of depth is probably true to some degree. But it’s not like we don’t want to beat the Gators. And most years that we play you better than Florida, Florida ends up beating you, too. Based on the end of the year results and your own game against the Gators, is it any surprise that you edged out a win against us but Florida plastered us like they did? 2007 was an exception to that rule, but of all the seasons I can think of, 2007 is the one that most proves Kyle’s theory, as we really did have a massive number of injuries that year. Our defense, which helped us notch the victory against you in Athens, was playing only a few of its original starters when we hosted Florida. Notably, during the Zook years when UGA was usually better than Florida and was generally at its best under Richt, you guys planted a five game winning streak on us and got a blowout one year. It’s also not a coincidence that we beat you in 2000 and 2001. Those were average Dawgs teams and some of our best.

I think what I’m trying to say is that, however you want to spin it, we’re not as awful as you think we are and you’re not as great as you think you are, at least in comparison to Florida and the UT teams from several years back.

Which was the first time we defeated you when Holtz was here. We’ve played pretty well against Georgia every year except one.

One of the reasons I think South Carolina fans take the game so seriously is because Georgia was the SEC team we played the most when we were in the ACC and independent. (And, I believe, in the precursor to Conference USA.) So it’s one of the few games, along with Clemson, that spans all generations of South Carolina fans.

Wouldn’t have been against playing them more regularly.

When the conference went to 12 teams, the new members were …

You guessed it, Arkansas and South Carolina. So the SEC suits though the two were the best match for each other.

I will say that I do have some hard feelings for Arkansas from the time you blew us out and we turned around and blew you out, and then giving us a loss we shouldn’t have had in 2001. So there’s a little bit of rivalry feeling from my end.

Looks like C & F went with the same two teams but with Tennessee in the two spot in his above post. I’ll let him come and answer for himself, though.

there could be another pole without UGA on the ballot?

The Tennessee-South Carolina games in recent years have usually been pretty close contests. (I remember there was a period back in the early Holtz years when I would think, “A game can’t get closer than that” — only to be proven wrong by the next year’s game between the two.) That’s why I think I’d rather beat them than Arkansas. But just the thought of losing to Arkansas makes me a bit sick to the stomach. In any case, they both really pale in comparison to Georgia.

Fanblogs … maybe a bit. Not much.