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What does a win in the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party actually mean?
By Joe Cox
Published:
With all of the hype, it’s time to break down what a win in the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party actually MEANS.
No, we’re not talking about sappy sentiment or testimonials as to how much fans care about game X or Y. We’re talking literally. What does it mean to a team’s season to win this game? Or to lose it? The answers were proof positive that this really is one of the premier rivalries in the SEC.
The Cocktail Party and Winning the East
This will be the 25th edition of the game since the SEC split into divisional play. Of those 24 years, the winner of the Cocktail Party went on to win the SEC East title 13 times. An additional three times, the loser of the game overcame the hardship to claim the East title themselves (all three times by the Bulldogs in 2002, 2003 and 2005). So 67 percent of the time, either UGA or UF has won the East, and of those years, just over 80 percent of the time, it’s the team that wins the rivalry game that wins the East.
The Party and the SEC Title
Seven times in the 24 previous editions of the game, the winner ended up going on to win the SEC championship. In other words, by virtue of winning the game, history suggests that you have a roughly 30 percent chance of claiming the SEC championship. Twice the loser of the UGA-UF game went on to win the SEC title.
The Party and the National Championship
For that matter, on three occasions, the team that won the Cocktail Party parlayed that win into a march to the national championship. Those winners, if you’re keeping score, were the 1996, 2006 and 2008 Florida Gators. Georgia, of course, hasn’t won a title since the modern divisional era of SEC play. That issue aside, the winner of the game historically has a 1 in 8 shot to capture college football’s ultimate crown.
No self-respecting UGA fan would want to miss pointing out that the two years when Georgia did claim a national title — 1942 and 1980 — were both years of Cocktail Party wins, with the 1942 game being a 75-0 beatdown that is still the gold standard for domination in the series.
Twice in recent years, upsets have robbed teams of likely national championship aspirations. In 2002, a 13-1 UGA team suffered its lone loss to Florida, and thus missed the BCS title game. Similarly in 2012, UGA gained revenge over the Gators by knocking off their title hopes in an upset.
The Party and Bowl Appearances
No team that has won the Cocktail Party since 1992 has failed to reach a bowl game. For that matter, 20 of the 24 losers of the game during that time have reached bowl games as well. Three times, UGA lost the game and missed a bowl (1993, 1994, and 1996), and once Florida lost the game and missed a bowl (2013).
The Party and AP Poll Success
Over those past 24 years, no less than 15 times, the winner of the Cocktail Party ended the season in the AP top 10. On 10 occasions, the winner ended the season in the AP top 5. Only in recent seasons has the rivalry fallen on tough times. The only times when neither UGA nor UF ended the season in the AP Top 25? 2010, when an 8-5 UF team edged a 6-7 UGA team in overtime; 2013, when an 8-5 Georgia team beat a 4-8 Florida squad; and 2015, when each team won 10 games but somehow missed out on the final AP Poll.
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So what does a win mean in the modern era of the SEC? It means you have a better than 50 percent chance of winning the SEC East, about a 30 percent chance of winning the SEC, a 100 percent chance of playing in a bowl game, a better than 60 percent chance of ending the season in the top 10, a better than 40 percent chance of ending up in the top 5 and a 13 percent chance of claiming a national title.
Admittedly, this year’s game looks unlikely to produce a national title winner, but that aside, history suggests that there will be plenty on the line on Saturday.
Joe Cox is a columnist for Saturday Down South. He has also written or assisted in writing five books, and his most recent, Almost Perfect (a study of baseball pitchers’ near-miss attempts at perfect games), is available on Amazon or at many local bookstores.
