The Steady Erosion of UGA Athletics?

The final NACDA Learfield Sports Cup rankings came out Tuesday and the news isn't good for Dawg people.  For those that don't know, the cup (it was once the Sears Cup, but is now sponsored by something called Learfield Sports) is the award for the best overall athletic performance by an NCAA athletic department.  Each school's score is based on a system of point allocations.  Points are given to each athletic program based on how their athletic teams finish in NCAA championships.  Each program gets to take their top twenty performing teams, ten teams of each sex.  Stanford, who fields an enormous amount of D-1 teams, always wins because they can usually pick twenty really good teams from their diverse portfolio.  UGA, in comparison, has only 20 athletic teams and riding horses doesn't count in the standings.

Across the conference, however, the criteria are fairly equal.  LSU has 19 sports teams and UF has 20, but one is women's lacrosse, which they haven't ever gotten points for.  So, of the three SEC athletic programs which are consistently in the top 15 in the standings, all have the same number of sports, 19.  

For the first half of the previous decade, UGA and UF were always fighting it out for the best SEC athletic program.  From 1999 to 2005, these two schools were in a constant battle.  UF held on to the conference crown in successive years only once.  Other than those two years, it was an alternating honor between the two schools.  LSU was a consistent third.

Since 2004, however, check out the trends:

That's disturbing for UGA as it illustrates a consistent erosion in overall athletic competitiveness.  This year's finish sees us outside of the top 15 for the first time since 1997.  Meanwhile, LSU has been on the opposite trajectory, rising for its first back-to-back top 10 finish.

So, what's the problem?  Could it be Damon Evans, who assumed the reigns of the UGA athletic department on July 1, 2004?  Or is that just a coincidence?  Damon inherited Felton (the basketball program has garnered points only once during the decline), Andy Landers had his worst year in a long time last season, and it was an odd year for the baseball team.  Most of this year's differential with LSU can be accounted for by two sports: track and basketball.  Every other UGA team is within the general area of their 2004 performance (baseball was #3 in 2004, but we did get points this year).  When UF and LSU are putting every team they have in postseason, UGA is going to fade fast with a couple of misses.  That's just what happened this year.

Any year you finish in the top ten is a good year.  This year's big drop isn't necessarily Damon's fault, but it should be a warning.  UF and LSU are demanding and getting excellence from every program they field.  We should do the same.  I hate for UGA to be second in anything.  I hate third even more. 

Quinton