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"The Bulldogs have gone as a group to Ebenezer Baptist Church and the Catholic Center (pictured left) on Sunday mornings this fall. Richt emphasized this week that the trips aren't mandatory and have more to do with building team camaraderie than converting souls.

''We write a letter to the families and tell them we'd like to go together as a team and if they have any problem with that to let me know,'' he said. ''If they don't mind, then we do it. If anybody had a problem with it, they had the opportunity not to go.''

Richt said he got one call from a parent and one player came to him to voice concern. That player was excused without question, Richt said.

''We didn't take roll,'' he said."

"Steve Shewmaker, the executive director of the university's Office of Legal Affairs, said he didn't see a conflict of interest or a blurring of the church-state boundary.

''As long as it's not mandatory or a requirement, it's permitted,'' Shewmaker said. ''Our position is as long as the students are here, that their voluntary participation in any extra-curricular activity is all part of the educational growth. I am sure, knowing Coach Richt, that the voluntariness of it has been made clear.

''When those questions have come to our office our advice has been so long as it is voluntary and not in any way connected to grades or class performance, then it's permissible.''"

"The cheerleader, Jaclyn Steele, claimed Braswell held pre-game prayers and hosted Bible studies in her Bogart home - just a few examples of what Steele's parents say made their daughter feel like an outcast on the squad."