Many University of Georgia alumni and fans are upset about the results of the football regular season, which has just concluded. Much has been said and written about the causes of the team's problems and who is responsible. I would like to share with you something which I have heard and which makes a lot of sense to me. I do not suggest that this is the only cause for the Bulldogs' problems, but it is something to think about.

A well thought-out schedule sets up a football team for success the entire year. In pro football they play four practice games to evaluate talent and work out "bugs." In college football there are no practice games. So the top programs open up at home with a walkover team to see what they have under game conditions and implement whatever changes need to be made before starting the "real" season. This also builds confidence for the young players. The exception is the preseason bowl game played at a neutral site such as the Alabama-Va. Tech game, which was played this season at the Georgia Dome. A big-time program should never open up on the road on somebody else's field. It opens the door to disaster. The other team can make its season by beating the big-time opponent and has all summer to get ready.

UGA has been playing football since 1892, a period of 118 years (counting this season). The Dawgs have an all-time winning percentage of 66.3 percent, which is near the top of all 120 universities that field a football team. In that entire time, UGA has only opened the season on an opponent's field 22 times. UGA's record in those games is 12-8-2. It is when the Dawgs opened up on an opponent's field and lost that things are particularly telling. That happened the following times with the season results in parentheses: 1956 (3-6-1); 1958 (4-6); 1960 (6-4); 1962 (3-4-3); 1964 (7-3-1); 1970 (5-5); 1990 (4-7); 2009 (7-5).

Do you see a pattern here? This is why top programs almost always open up at home with a walkover team. This is why (with the exception of 1970) then-UGA Athletic Director Joel Eaves pretty much put an end to the practice of opening up on the road when Vince Dooley showed up as coach in 1964. Have there been exceptions? Have the Dawgs opened on the road and gone on to win that game and have a good season? Yes. But clearly there is a correlation between opening up on the road and losing, then going on to have a bad season.

Brady Ackerman, a college football analyst for the Cable Sports South Network made the following comment on the Oct. 11,'Talkin' Football" television show about what happened to UGA this season: "Georgia really needed to open up with a couple of cupcakes to get into their offense and defense. They couldn't because the schedule was too tough."

The beginning of the problems for the Dawgs this season was the decision made by UGA Athletic Director Damon Evans to start the season on the road at Oklahoma State University. The Dawgs lost that game. People are giving Evans a pass on this for some reason and frankly I cannot understand why. It is Athletic Director 101 to not send your team to open up on the road. The University of Florida never does. The proper thing to do is have a tune-up game (Florida played two this year) before you start your regular schedule. This UGA team was teetering on the brink all season and could have gone either way. The omission of the tune-up game certainly contributed to the problems the UGA team had with erratic play this season.

The reason that I bring this up is (you guessed it) the Dawgs are scheduled to open on the road again in future seasons. Look at the proposed schedules for 2012, 2013 and 2016. Also none of the opening games, home or away, after 2011 are against easy opponents. They are all against difficult opponents.

The point is: Don't start the season on another team's home turf. Start the season at home with a tune-up game against an easy opponent to work out the kinks. Historically, when UGA teams don't do that and lose the first game, they tend to have a bad season.

Nothing scientific about it - just reporting the facts. People called for the firings of several coaches because of UGA's poor season.

Maybe someone should be looking at the athletic director and his role in this, too, and stopping him before more damage is done.

Ronald Arthur Lowry Is A Marietta lawyer.