Turn out the lights, the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party's over

For decades, the annual college football matchup between the University of Florida and the University of Georgia has been known as The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. The game takes place in Jacksonville each fall in late October or early November. Having been to several TWLOCPs myself, mostly in my college days, I can attest to the fact that the game's nickname is pretty much accurate. There's a lot of alcohol consumed.

But if the University of Georgia's president has anything to say about it, the great SEC rivalry game between the Gators and the Bulldogs never will be referred to as TWLOCP again.

University of Georgia President Michael Adams objects to the phrase "World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party" to describe the annual Georgia-Florida football game.

And he has asked CBS Television and the city of Jacksonville, Fla., to not use the phrase when promoting the game the network televises each year.

The request is part of Adams' push to curb on-campus alcohol abuse and change UGA's image as a party school.

"There are better images," Adams told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "We have requested they not use that nomenclature. The indication is they are sensitive to our concern."

As if dropping the unofficial name of the game is going to curb alcohol use or abuse, especially among college students. It won't. And I don't get the impression that either Alltel stadium or CBS will elect to cancel their sponsorship agreements with the beer companies. Of course not. After all, that would put a damper on the great sums of money to be made off the sale and marketing of alcohol.

This apparent crusade is reminiscent of the recent change in the unofficial name of the annual football game played in Dallas between the University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma. It used to be called the Red River Shootout.

That is, until the politically-correct gurus among us decided that any association with guns was bad karma. It's now called the Red River Rivalry. Ugh.

But hasn't the name change resulted in a drastic reduction in crime and illegal use of guns in Dallas and elsewhere, you ask? Uh, no.

Having spent four of the best years of my life at the University of Florida, I am confident that today's student body will not give in to the wild and crazy rantings of Georgia's president. On the contrary, I wouldn't be surprised to see The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party gain even greater prominence in the years to come...if for no other reason than to spite a weeny, pencil-necked administrator from UGA.

Go Gators!