Tag: greg mcgarity

Georgia AD Greg McGarity will retire at this year’s end

BREAKING: Georgia AD Greg McGarity will officially retire at the end of 2020, serving as the UGA AD for 11 years.

Greg McGarity, the University of Georgia’s athletic director for the past eleven years, will officially retire at the year’s end.

McGarity began his role within UGA athletics at the young age of ten, where he was a helper to then tennis coach Dan Magill.  He served as the UGA women’s tennis coach from 1977-1981 before he began his roles as an administrative assistant and assistant athletic director for the Dawgs.

McGarity was the University of Florida’s No. 2 athletics official when UGA offered him the AD job back in 2010.  He is an Athens native and graduate of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at Georgia.  He graduated from the university in 1977 and was a letterman on the 1973 Georgia men’s tennis team.

The university made the announcement of McGarity’s retirement on Monday afternoon, after the news was reported first by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The university released a statement that included a quote from McGarity thanking the Bulldog Nation.

“I want to thank President (Jere) Morehead for all of his support and guidance over the years. I step down knowing that our Athletic Association is in great hands under his strong leadership. To our coaches, athletic staff, and student-athletes — you have made the last decade the very best of my career, and I thank you for your dedication to excellence in athletics. You are the heart and soul of our program, and it has truly been an honor to serve alongside you as athletic director. Finally, my thanks to our alumni, donors, and fans for your unyielding support of Georgia athletics. There is no better fan base in college sports than the Bulldog Nation.”

Josh Brooks, UGA’s deputy athletic director since 2016, will serve as the interim AD until the university finishes the search for who will fill the shoes of McGairty.  Brooks is also a strong candidate for the position.

McGarity’s contract expired back in 2018 but president Jere Moorehead convinced him to sign two one-year extensions.  McGarity made some killer executive decisions, including the hiring of football coach Kirby Smart as well as basketball coach Tom Crean.

A damn good dawg simply isn’t enough to describe Greg McGarity.  All UGA fans, students, teachers, coaches and players will miss the man who gave so much back to his university and community.  We wish McGarity all the best in the next chapter of his life, retirement.

UGA AD Greg McGarity gets one-year contract extension

UGA AD Greg McGarity receives a one-year contract extension.

The Georgia athletic board has voted for a one-year contract extension for UGA athletic director Greg McGartiy.

McGarity, whose contract was set to expire at the end of the month, will stick around as Georgia’s athletic director for at least one more athletic year.

McGarity turns 66 in October and he will be entering his 11th school year as athletic director. Hired in 2010, McGarity is currently the SEC’s second longest tenured athletic director.

“I believe that continuity is particularly important during this time of uncertainty,” UGA president Jere Morehead said on a Zoom teleconference.

“Greg has expressed his willingness and desire to continue serving…. He has been a great leader of our athletic programs.”

McGarity had been working off of a one-year extension he received last February.

Morehead mentioned that SEC commissioner Greg Sankey views McGarity as one of the conference’s more valuable resources.

“You are one of the key athletic directors that he relies upon for most every issue,” Morehead said. “I know he will be particularly pleased to learn this development today.”

AD McGarity ‘planning for a full house’ for 2020 UGA football games

Georgia AD Greg McGarity went on 92.9 The Game’s morning show and discussed allowing fans into UGA football games this fall.

University of Georgia Athletic Director Greg McGarity went on 92.9 The Game’s morning show on Tuesday and discussed allowing fans into football games this fall.

Per 92.9 The Game’s Mike Conti

“We’re planning for a full house. Is that realistic? Time will tell,” McGarity said. “We have several internal documents ready to activate, but we don’t want to go public, especially in May.”

McGarity spoke just a few days after the SEC’s vote which allowed athletes to use on-campus facilities starting June 8, which followed the NCAA Division 1 Council’s decision last week to lift its restriction on workouts starting June 1.

It looks as if we are on the road to a 2020 college football season and McGarity thinks that, not only will there be football, there will be fans in attendance as well.

But, as he said, is that realistic?

From what we know about COVID-19 and the restrictions on crowds that are in place, it may be too early to get our hopes up.

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said:

“For us to have our football season our universities have to re-engage in a normal operating pattern.”

Once universities begin to fully-reopen is when we should find out if there is a realistic possibility for fans to be in attendance at college football games this fall.

Until then, let’s enjoy the fact that athletes are allowed back on campuses and it looks like football, with or without fans, will at least be played.

UGA AD Greg McGarity ‘planning as if a football season is going to happen’

UGA athletic director Greg McGarity says the school is ‘planning as if a football season is going to happen’ for Georgia football

Colleges across the country are starting to feel the significant financial burden on sports that comes with the coronavirus.

Prior to the cancellation of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, the NCAA was set to disperse $600 million to Division I schools. Now it will only be sending out $225 million, a 62% cut.

Now we all know that we will be without a college basketball postseason, as well as all other major professional sports for a while, but the question still remains; will we have football in 2020?

“Depending on football, obviously, that’s the big unknown now,” University of Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity said in an interview with Marc Weiszer of the Athens Banner-Herald.

“We’re planning as if a football season is going to happen. If that doesn’t happen, that’s a whole another environment.”

All universities spring football games have been cancelled but we are still a ways away from the regular season. McGarity’s statement is a good sign for Bulldog and all football fans, but schools are still starting to prepare for the worst.

Georgia sold $33.4 million in ticket sales for the 2019 season, and that’s just revenue from fans who go to the games. They also have a number of other major sources of football revenue that will be lost if football is not a reality for 2020.

“We’re hoping and praying that doesn’t happen,” McGarity said. “We also have to be realistic if football was not part of that what does that mean with our reserves, how much of the reserve can we utilize to make us somewhat whole. That’s why we have a reserve, thank goodness. We’re probably in better shape than a lot of institutions because of our financial stability.”

ESPN’s college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit is among those who have a more skeptical outlook on the upcoming 2020 CFB and NFL seasons.

“I’ll be shocked if we have NFL football this fall, if we have college football. I’ll be so surprised if that happens,” said Herbstreit on ESPN Radio.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion on this matter, but Herbstreit brought up the point that vaccinations are estimated to take roughly a year or more to become available.

“Just because from what everything I understand, people that I listen to, you’re 12 to 18 months away from a vaccine,” he added. “I don’t know how you let these guys go into locker rooms and let stadiums be filled up and how you can play ball. I just don’t know how you can do it with the optics of it.”

McGarity also mentioned that the athletic department will only be spending on essential operations and virus related issues until the pandemic is over.  Georgia should be able to handle an economic dip like this and is preparing for the absolute worst, but hoping for the best.

There are still 162 days until Georgia is scheduled to kickoff the 2020 football season against Virginia.  We will keep you up to date with the latest coronavirus news and the impact it will have on the 2020 football season.

Georgia football is big business

Georgia football is big business

ATLANTA, Ga.–The Atlanta Business Chronicle ran a bottom-half, front-page piece in this week’s issue on the huge costs associated with landing the number one recruiting class in the nation. In “Here’s how much it costs to the land the No. 1 recruiting class,” writer Eric Jackson took a fairly deep dive into the numbers.

That the preeminent local Atlanta business publication (founded 1978) cares so much about the nuances of the business end of American college football shows the true prominence of the old amateur sport in the city, especially when considering that Georgia football is based in Athens, Ga., fairly nearby, yet outside Greater Metro Atlanta’s wide suburban sprawl.

The reporting indicated that UGA spent $3.7 million in the 2019 fiscal year on football recruiting, with the second biggest spenders in the nation at neighboring state school Alabama spending $2.6 million.

Jan 8, 2018; Atlanta, GA, USA; Georgia Bulldogs athletic director Greg McGarity prior to the 2018 CFP national championship college football game against the Alabama Crimson Tide at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

Athletic director Greg McGarity was quoted as saying, “We basically do what we need to from a financial standpoint to support our football program in all areas; that includes recruiting.”

On recruiting efforts, UGA spent $2.2 million back in 2016, which had swelled only slightly to $2.6 million by 2018. The huge leap to $3.7 million put Georgia in a spending class of its own.

Ranking Georgia football’s rivalries

The University of Georgia Bulldogs have a lot rivals, here Han Vance looks at the biggest.

Georgia Bulldogs football has more than its fair share of rivals, with ancient series played against regional opposition, plus divisional and conference foes aplenty and regular meetings in the postseason. While there is some fluidity in the relevance of each rivalry’s significance based on how both programs are performing at the time, and the ebbs and flows of the meetings, some things never change.

Nov 30, 2019; Atlanta, GA, USA; Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets mascot Buzz and Georgia Bulldogs mascot Hairy Dawg after a game at Bobby Dodd Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports
  1. Florida: As long as the Gators and Bulldogs are the second and first place teams in the SEC East division, playing annually at an neutral site game near the states’ border, Florida and Georgia will be the hugest of rivals. Throw in the animus of Steve Spurrier after Vince Dooley’s dominance of Florida, as the plot thickened. Plenty of drama has unfolded over the years, from Larry Munson’s famous “Run Lindsay” call to Mark Richt’s whole team dancing on the field. Urban Meyer and Tim Tebow calling timeout and running up the score the next year, back to that “mean man” Steve Spurrier scoring “half a hundred” in Sanford Stadium while the old Gator Bowl was being transformed into an NFL stadium. Florida being by far the most populated state in the Southeast and the site of what was once called the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party gives the Gators an advantage; Georgia being the site where the SEC championship games are played and containing the South’s biggest market in Metro Atlanta is advantage UGA. Georgia has won three straight. Florida does have two straight Top 10 finishes.
  2. Tech: Although Georgia has had no lasting problems with their only in-state rival in the last two decades, the Yellow Jackets location in Atlanta ensures that the rivalry stays near the top. They call it “Clean, Old-fashioned Hate” but the bad blood mostly flows from North Avenue east, instead of the other direction, these days. Kirby Smart has won three straight over Tech since a late game collapse Between the Hedges his first year back at UGA.
  3. Auburn: Georgia has won 12-of-15 in the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry, first played in Piedmont Park of Atlanta. In the Kirby Smart era, UGA had underperformed on the road at the SEC West in three straight blowout losses, until the 2019 team changed that with a big win on the plains, behind the best defense in the whole country. Some project the teams to play twice in 2020.
  4. Alabama: Bama and Georgia were on the biggest collision course in the whole country a couple seasons ago, coming off an Alabama overtime win in Atlanta that nobody can forget. They met again for the SEC championship game in the same building that same calendar year, with a similar outcome. Alabama has won five straight over Georgia. Georgia has won on their last two trips to visit Alabama. Which trend continues on in 2020?
  5. Tennessee: Georgia and Tennessee have each won 13 SEC titles, tied for second in league history behind Alabama. The coaches at Tennessee having coached at Georgia only adds to the intrigue in a series UGA leads 24-23-2. The series has been moved back on the schedule, with Auburn being moved forward toward the middle, out of their traditional spot as UGA’s last SEC game.
  6. South Carolina: The Chickens brought some passion back to the rivalry by beating the Dawgs in Athens in 2019. South Carolina regards Georgia as their second biggest rival, after Clemson.
  7. Clemson: Clemson is the nearest geographic rival to UGA, a few miles closer than Georgia Tech is to UGA. At this point, it is a rivalry of jealousy, in that Clemson has done what Georgia wants to do. The athletic departments have ensured that the longtime rivals will meet again in the future, but it could be sooner if Georgia can get back to the CFP. Clemson is there annually.
  8. LSU: Georgia was blown out in Baton Rouge in 2018 and again in Atlanta in 2019, at the hands of the purple and gold. Georgia has faced LSU four times in-state for the SEC championship, winning just once. Another meeting may come. In September of 2013, USA TODAY called it “The no hate rivalry.” No love, though.