re: South Carolina over the years ....

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good stuff scrooster. some other little tidbits to your story. we were in close discussion w/ FSU, Penn St. and I think Miami to create our own conference in the 80's. word got out to the Big 10, who decided to grab Penn St. SEC expansion was started by Dick Bestwick, who was Vince Dooley's right hand man at UGA and also worked some at the SEC office. Bestwick & Dooley had actually brought up the subject at a SEC meeting of expanding and adding USC in the 80's before PSU's jump to the B10. we then hired Bestwick to be AD to replace Marcum who was fired. Bestwick, w/ Dooley's support again made a plea to the SEC for expansion w/ USC. Bestwick didn't last long at USC because of health issues, but he supposedly did get the SEC to create an expansion committee to explore the idea. some USC BOT members were aware of what was going on and lobbying for support w/ UGA. King Dixon just walked into the situation. I learned this from one of the BOT members that was involved.

A few years ago, I actually met Dick Bestwick in Athens who later retired from UGA and he confirmed it all (in front of a bunch of UGA friends that didn't realize that UGA played such an integral role.)

I agree we had a lot of missed opportunities to do something great like w/ Dietsel and Carlen, but the SEC more than made up for it. I wish the University would do something to recognize Dick Bestwick's contribution.

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Reading all this, it's a little bit ironic I think that Bestwick was a college player and graduate of the University of North Carolina...