1997:A Magical season(relatively speaking) or Return to Glory (relatively speaking again)

Champ Bailey's recent quote about tim tebow prompted an inquiry from Pete as to Bailey's record against Florida.

Here is the answer and more:

Bailey was 1-2 against the Gators, but Bailey was part of the only UGA team--with Hines Ward, Mike Bobo and Robert Edwards-- to beat the Spurrier Gators in what is now considered UGA's "return to glory"*** season. Prior to 1997, Georgia struggled to get its self out of the Roy Goff era. In 1997, Georgia raced to a 4-0 start before Peyton Manning and Tennessee brought them back to earth. On Nov 1, Georgia entered the cocktail party with a 6-1 record but were 20 point underdogs to the gators. 3 hours and 23 minutes later Georgia celebrated a 37-17 win over the Gators. Larry Munson lit a cigar in the press box(probably against the law for anyone other than Munson) and Dawg fans proclaimed they had turned the series around. Chants of "you can't spell sugar**** without UGA" were rampant throughout the river city. I even felt the aftershock of that victory 350 miles south in Miami as my Dad and I attended the Orange Bowl Committee--consisting primarily of UF alums-- pot luck dinner. Never before had I seen so many distraught 50 plus year old men in orange blazers.

Well, Auburn blew the dawgs out two weeks later forcing them out of a major bowl and into the place where dream seasons end..... The outback bowl. Much to the chagrin of Georgia fans, the Gator's popularity landed them in the citrus bowl against Penn State. 13 years later, Georgia fans still wait to turn the Florida series around, but they'll always have the magical season of 1997 which included an outback bowl victory over Wisconsin.

***For purposes of this post, "Glory" means 9-3 seasons with second or third place finishes in the SEC east.

****Ohio State got the nod over Georgia to get blown out by FSU in the 97-98 Sugar bowl. Somewhere in Columbus right now, a bitter Buck claims OSU would have beaten UGA had they gone to the outback bowl in 1997:

Kurt from Chesapeake, Va., writes: Adam, As you are talking bowl tie-ins I got to thinking. One of the reasons that the Big Ten has such a bad record in bowl games is because there have been 2 teams in BCS games. Because of this, the rest of the Big Ten has been "bumped up" in the slotting. Take last year for example. If Ohio State would have not been a BCS team, they would have taken Michigan States place and probably beat Georgia. Michigan State would have then played in Iowa's place and beat South Carolina. And so on. Is the Big Ten looking at this senario when making new bowl tie in agreements?

Adam Rittenberg: You're absolutely spot on, Kurt. While the Big Ten must perform better in BCS games, the league's overall bowl record would be much better if each team moved down a slot and there was only one BCS selection. No league plays as challenging a bowl lineup as the Big Ten, especially when you factor in the geography. That said, I don't think the Big Ten will ever scream, "Please don't take two of our teams for BCS bowls!" The revenue and exposure is way too appealing to pass up. But as far as the proposed lineup, it does give the Big Ten another manageable matchup on Jan. 1 in the Gator Bowl. The Big Ten still will be "playing up" against the ACC in Jacksonville, but I doubt there'll be a major difference between those teams.