Uga VI will be laid to rest inside Sanford Stadium this afternoon. It says something about Georgia fans that the Athletic Department has had to make it clear that this is a private ceremony. Still, given that they have made the time and the date of the interment public information, I really hope that a crowd doesn’t gather on the bridge. There’s a fine line between paying your respects to Uga and becoming one of those Barbaro freaks.

After Uga is buried, the process of naming a successor will begin. This is no small job. It’s not just about looks. The ideal Uga must also have the personality and the temperment to handle the job week in and week out in front of SEC crowds. Just any white bulldog won’t do.

The last transition was public and smooth. Uga VI of course was selected and introduced while Uga V was still alive, and Uga V had a chance to retire before passing away. But now we face the scenario of an active Uga passing while in office, and an interregnum is a new experience for many Georgia fans. It’s been a while since we’ve gone through this process, so I’m here this morning with a look inside the process.

The process begins this week after the burial of Uga VI. Living members of the University’s Circle of Honor and football players with retired numbers will arrive in Athens beginning this afternoon, and they will sequester themselves on several floors of the Georgia Center for Continuing Education (Uga’s Athens residence during a home game). They will take several days to become familiar with the candidates and deliberate. Most of the day will be spent in seclusion in their Georgia Center rooms reflecting on the qualities of Uga while consulting "Best of Munson" DVDs and the 2008 Phil Steele.

During this time the Circle of Honor must decide what kind of mascot they want. Uga VI was large and playful with a sense for when it was time to play ball. The Circle might decide that they want a more hard-line, no-nonsense mascot to keep the team on task during this difficult season ahead. They might want a young, smaller pup who has a little more animation than his father. Less-conservative members of the Circle might even support a mascot with some carefully-hidden brown patches as a sign of inclusiveness and an appeal to widen the growing Georgia bandwagon.

Then they will vote. Each day the members of the Circle of Honor will cast a ballot with a single name. Damon Evans, whose duties as Athletic Director include administrative oversight of this process, will read aloud the result of each ballot. If no candidate receives two-thirds of the votes, the Circle of Honor will retire for the evening, and the ballots will be shredded and used to line the cages of the various candidates.

Once a candidate gets at least two-thirds of the votes, members of the Seiler family will remove the other candidates from the room. The Uga-elect will be presented with a dummy of an Auburn player (an actual Auburn player may be substituted) and a television cable. If the Uga-elect correctly lunges at both items, Sonny Seiler will immediately place the bulldog on a bag of ice and speak the name of the new mascot while proclaiming him Defender of the End Zone and Protector of That Big Air-Conditioned Dog House. Seiler may choose any appropriate name; there is some speculation that Uga IV was nearly named Herschel I. But it’s expected that this year’s new mascot will be named Uga VII.

Seiler will then place a custom-made red sweater on the new mascot. The Chapel Bell will ring. Finally, Seiler will emerge from the lobby of the Georgia Center and announce, "Habemus canum y’all" (we have a dawg). The new mascot will emerge and make his public debut as he is taken for a walk around the Georgia Center grounds, possibly stopping to anoint the vegetation along Carlton Street.

The Seilers and the new mascot will return to Uga’s summer residence in Savannah to prepare the mascot for his first public appearances. His first big foray into the public world will be at Picture Day in August, and he’s only two months away from his first game when he will lead the Bulldogs into action against Georgia Southern.

Eager Georgia fans wait outside the Main Library for news of the next Bulldog mascot.