No, my guy, the standard is not w/e u accept it to be, it’s what a program have set it to be.
If we were SuntanU, then yes, what we’ve experienced for over 20 yrs would be the standard; but, when u flex as a Blue Blood, those standards change.
It’s quite unreasonable to think a team should win a championship every year, but when u’re a Blue Blood or want to be considered one, it’s not unthinkable to expect to be competing or vying for those titles.
U brought up UGA’s drought, & one thing I wish this fan base will immediately stop doing is comparing ourselves to others b/c they not like us (pun intended).
What I’ll do is provide championship droughts between programs that’s won the last 4 titles, & let’s see what happened during their championship droughts:
1. Meechigan - Drought from 1998-2022 (25 yrs):
10 win seasons: 11 (44%)
Conference Titles: 6 (24%)
Divisional Titles: 2* (17%)
Bowl Victories: 7 including 2 NY6 bowls (28%)
CFP: 2* (22%)
Top 25 Finishes: 17 (68%)
*Divisions in B1G didn’t begin until 2011
*CFP wasn’t created until 2014
2. UGA - Drought from 1981-2020 (40 yrs):
10 win seasons: 17 (43%)
Conference Titles: 5 (13%)
Divisional Titles: 8* (28%)
Bowl Victories: 23 including 7 NY6 bowls (58%)
CFP: 3* (43%)
Top 25 Finishes: 27 (68%)
*Divisions in SEC didn’t begin until 1991
*CFP wasn’t created until 2014
3. Bama. Drought from 1993-2008 (15 yrs):
10 win seasons: 6 (40%)
Conference Titles: 1 (7%)
Divisional Titles: 5 (33%)
Bowl Victories: 6 including 1 NY6 bowl (40%)
CFP: N/A
Top 25 Fnishes: 8 (53%)
Now, let’s compare to us.
Miami. Drought from 2002-present (22 yrs):
10 win seasons: 3 (14%)
Conference Titles: 2* (9%)
Divisional Titles: 1* (5%)
Bowl Victories: 4 including 2 NY6 bowls (18%)
CFP: 0 (0%)
Top 25 Finishes: 8 (36%)
*Conference Titles came from the now defunct Big East
*Joined ACC in 2004 & began divisional play
****, for chits & giggles, let’s compare us to USC
USC. Drought from 2005-present (19 yrs):
10 win seasons: 9 (47%)
Conference Titles: 5 (26%)
Divisional Titles: 3* (27%)
Bowl Victories: 8 including 4 NY6 bowls (42%)
CFP: 0 (0%)
Top 25 Finishes: 12 (63%)
*PAC-12 Divisions were from 2011-2021
Are u seeing a glaring difference? Even programs who went through or are currently going through long droughts still gave their fans something to hang on to, whether that was a top 25 finish 2/3 yrs, a 10 win season 2/5 yrs, or a bowl victory 2/5 yrs.
We’ve been well below this simple standard, & it’s not close.