ATHENS, Ga. &#8212 Georgia is getting ready to face Alabama in a crucial Southeastern Conference game. The Crimson Tide is coached by Nick Saban. Saban used to work for Bill Belichick.

Can you figure out where this is going?

For the first time in his seven years as the Bulldogs coach, Mark Richt has totally closed practice for the week leading up to a game.

While doing his best to persuade skeptical reporters that it has nothing to do with Saban’s tactics, Richt seemed downright paranoid Tuesday when going over his reasons for the lockdown.

“Things have changed in the last few years. It’s not like it used to be. It’s so easy for information to travel so fast,” Richt said. “Maybe if we had an indoor facility where no one was walking around or looking in the window, we would all feel better. The reality is: What we do is big. People care. Winning and losing has a profound effect on people’s careers.”

While Belichick’s sideline videotaping has brought cheating to the forefront in the NFL, it has long been a concern at the college ranks, where cloak-and-dagger coaches worry that opponents are spying on practices, stealing signals and using all sorts of nefarious tactics to get an edge – apparently with good reason.

Vince Dooley used to hear of cases every year while serving as chairman of the ethics committee of the national coaching association, which has guidelines against illicit spying.

Dooley remembers one team sent someone to spy on an opponent from the sixth floor of the school’s library, which happened to provide a clear view of the practice field.

“He was sitting up there writing away,” Dooley said, without naming either school. “It was just a blatant violation of the rules.”

Richt usually allows family members and former players to watch practice, and he would also let in the media for the first half-hour before the team got down to its serious work.

Not this week with the No. 22 Bulldogs (2-1) preparing for a trip to Tuscaloosa.

“If it were up to me and I could get away with it, I would just as soon close it down (permanently),” Richt said. “There’s not much that decides between winning and losing. A lot of times, it’s one play. If the other team gets a one-play advantage, it could cost you.”

Richt said he’s more concerned about information getting out over the Internet than he is about another school sending someone to Athens on a spying mission. It might be something as innocent as a student telling a friend about a play. The next thing you know, the friend has posted the info on a MySpace page.

“When you’re out there practicing, doing whatever it is you’re doing, it wouldn’t take a veteran coach to understand what’s happening,” Richt said. “You wonder who might see it and say something. It might even be your own people.”

So, who’s barred from practice this week?

“Any face,” Richt said, “that we don’t really recognize.”