georgia football uga Josh Brooks

GREENSBORO — Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks is keeping score and pushing results across his athletics department, and he believes that has led to improved results.

Certainly UGA president Jere Morehead took note, authorizing Brooks to receive a contract extension of six years starting from July of 2023 and a raise of $1.025 million, to increase by $100,000 annually each year of the contract.

Brooks was previously down to two years remaining on his current contract -- the lowest in the SEC.

The third-year Georgia athletic director, who was recognized as one of six finalists for the Sports Business Journal’s Athletic Director of the Year award on Wednesday night in New York, noted 19 of the Bulldogs’ 21 sponsored sports competed in NCAA postseason play.

Men’s baseball and men’s basketball were the two sports that did not compete in NCAA postseason play.

Still, Morehead noted the achievement in other sports warranted extra pay and job security.

“This is an extraordinary position,” UGA president Morehead said at the UGA Athletics Board spring meeting on Thursday at Lake Oconee.

“It is why we are likely to finish … in the Top 10 in the Learfield Cup standings, potentially — potentially — with the top finish in the Southeastern Conference.”

“One of the truest tests of success is when you can be successful across the board,” said Brooks, who was the youngest director in the Power 5 ranks when he was named UGA’s AD in 2021, at 41 years old.

“I want to win if we’re keeping score.”

The Bulldogs football team has notably won back-to-back CFP Championships the past two seasons, while Brooks and is staff are providing financial fire support behind the scenes.

Georgia has raised record amounts in each of the past two years — $86.4 million in 2022, and $97.7 million, already, this season.

Brooks’ presentation on Thursday noted six programs that have attained top 10 ranks this spring:

• No. 2 women’s tennis

• No. 3 men’s track

• No. 6 equestrian

• No. 7 men’s tennis

• No. 7 softball

• No. 9 women’s track

Earlier this year, the UGA soccer and volleyball programs earned postseason bids in the same season for the first time in history.

More recently, Georgia is the only program to have its men’s tennis program reach the quarterfinals and women’s program reach the semifinals this season.

Brooks announced that Georgia baseball, one of the two sports that did not earn an NCAA postseason berth, will see its Foley Field facility undergo a much-needed $45 million renovation over the next two seasons.

The Bulldogs’ softball program, one of the 16 remaining teams in the sports’ postseason (playing at 7 p.m. on Thursday, ESPN2), will see its facilities received a $38.5 million upgrade.

“I do believe when you think about Learfield Cup, you aren’t just arbitrarily going to get there,” Brooks said. “You have to speak it into existence.”

The Bulldogs’ athletic programs entered the spring sports season ranked 13th in the nation, and fourth in the SEC.

But Brooks’ believes there’s a change UGA could finish highest in the SEC, once the spring sports season concludes.

“The next goal is to be the top Learfield School in the SEC, and the ultimate goal is to win it all,” Brooks said.

Brooks said that might seem like a long shot, with schools like Stanford, Michigan and Ohio State boasting more than 30 sports — and the top 19 counted in the standings.

“But if we don’t talk about it, it will never happen.”