Georgia Bulldogs AD Josh Brooks: G-Day spring game is still planned

“We’re still full-planning on G-Day this year,” Brooks said. “You know, you’ve got to take it year to year on things like that. But I can say one thing I appreciate about coach Smart is that he understands the value of the game, and it is an opportunity for some of our fans to come see the players and they may or may not have season tickets. It’s always been a special day, and I think it’s in the plans for this year.”

A date for the spring game has not yet been announced, but if Georgia were to follow tradition, it would likely be on April 12. Georgia has not yet announced when spring practices would begin either, but that is traditionally after Georgia returns from spring break.

Spring games have always been important for Smart, who famously got 93,000 Georgia fans to attend his first spring game back in 2016. The Bulldogs have a number of important storylines to follow this spring, as they must find a new starting quarterback as the team looks to build off an 11-3 season which saw Georgia win the SEC championship, but lose to Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff.

Spring games were not the only point of discussion from Tuesday’s athletic board meeting.

With the looming House settlement – the final approval hearing is set for April 7 — the idea of revenue sharing is closer than ever in college sports.

Brooks said that many of the details still have to be ironed out but they are preparing for a new economic world.

“There’s going to be a standard set amount in conference,” Brooks said. “But I can tell you right now, with or without conference standards, ours is going to be very close to the formula that was created from backpay, which is 75 (percent football), 15 (men’s basketball), 5 (women’s basketball) , and 5 (other sports). There’ll be some variances in there, but that’s a good starting point. We’re working through those final, last percentages, but it’s going to be probably very close to what was described in the back there.”

The $20.5 million number that Georgia and schools are working with will see $2.5 million go toward new scholarships. Meaning the actual pool for schools to distribute revenue among athletes would actually be closer to $18 million. Brooks estimated that the $2.5 million would create roughly 100 new scholarships for Georgia.

Using Brooks’ math, that would mean that schools have roughly $13.5 million to work with in terms of distributing among the football roster. Georgia has recently made changes to its NIL structure on the operations side in anticipation of the House settlement.

Brooks and Georgia President Jere Morehead briefly shared their thoughts on other proposed changes in college football, whether it be tweaks to the SEC championship or other issues with college athletics.

Brooks and Morehead kept things mostly close to the vest, with one exception.

“We’ll see,” Brooks said when asked about changes to the SEC championship format. “Whatever helps us win a national championship or gets us the pathway for a national championship.”