GAINESVILLE -- University of Georgia Athletic Director Greg McGarity did not shy away from what he felt was an honest assessment of the Bulldogs' sports department as a whole.
"We're. ... OK right now," McGarity said to the Gainesville Kiwanis Club Tuesday afternoon. "We want all of our sports to be in the hunt. We still have a long way to go for all of our sports to be competitive on the national level."
McGarity addressed issues for roughly 45 minutes ranging from recruiting to the university's drug policy to ticket prices, the spring football game, and the SEC Network to name a few.
McGarity said a focus on foundations and "the process" have been themes for all sports in the department, which has grown to an annual budget of $99 million under his watch.
"We're a business and we're focused on making sure everyone in our department is geared to giving recruits and their parents, and anyone else who comes into our offices, the best experience we can," he said. "We get a lot of positive feedback about how we handle ourselves and that will make a difference in the long run."
He had high praise for both football coach Mark Richt and men's basketball coach Mark Fox.
"Both Marks are high-quality people who are trying to find the right players to compete for championships," McGarity said. "They are doing things the right way."
Rumors have circulated around Georgia blogs that McGarity was wanting to make a change atop the football program. McGarity, however, pointed to a new five-year extension he recently handed Richt.
"I don't pay any attention to those things and neither should anyone else," McGarity said. "We gave Mark that extension because we feel he is the guy that can lead us to a championship. We wouldn't have done that if we thought otherwise."
McGarity said some supporters have pointed to the university's drug policy, which is one of the strictest in the nation, as one reason the Bulldogs have not been able to keep pace with some other SEC schools.
"Is it too strict? We don't think so," McGarity said. "It's one of the foundations we're trying to establish. We want parents to know we will take the high road and try to make sure their kids are on the right path. I don't know if it has had any real affect on recruiting but I wouldn't want to go the other way to find out."
Recently-retired women's basketball coach Andy Landers and the state of that program was another topic of discussion.
"In 1979, when I was an associate athletic director, Vince Dooley told to give this guy named Andy Landers a call and ask him to be the next women's coach. He was talking SEC titles, and national titles, and recruiting the best players in the country and I thought he was a little crazy at first," McGarity said. "But 36 years later he had his teams in the NCAA field 33 times and played for the title a couple of times. If all our programs had been run like that we'd have several all-sports trophies on the wall.
"There has been a lot of interest in that position but no one in particular yet that we are willing to mention. We don't have a timetable but obviously we want to fill that as quickly as possible, but with the right person."
The not-even-a-year-old SEC Network was another interesting topic.
"No one was expecting it make any income in the first year, maybe two," McGarity said. "But ESPN was able to get it in virtually every market in the country and they had over 1,200 broadcasts of events, counting internet, which is nearly triple their initial estimates back in the summer and fall. Everyone will see some modest revenue from it which is something none of us expected. It should only get better."
He did not address the recent topic of freshman eligibility but he did feel that student-athletes deserve a choice coming out of high school.
"I think in all sports, like they do in basketball, if a kid wants to go straight to the pros they should be able to," he said. "Not everyone has the ability to do that but if they do why not? That would be one thing I would change if I were in charge of the NCAA."
Wednesday
May 1st, 2024
8:28AM
