The Athletic Director for the University of Georgia, Josh Brooks, joined The Steakhouse live in Athens for a conversation on the state of the department. One of the topics that quickly came forward was the upcoming schedule of games for the football program in 2025.
There was plenty of speculation and intrigue following the additions of Texas and Oklahoma into the SEC about who would be playing who. Now, we know that divisions have been done away with and teams will be cycled through, with a single fixed rival left in place. Additionally, the 2025 schedule of games was released and we know that it will remain the same but with a flipped home team.
"It's what I wanted and it's what I fought for," Brooks told The Steakhouse about the remodeled 2025 schedule of games. "I stood up in the room and I said, 'Guys, if y'all are going to make me go to Austin and Tuscaloosa and Oxford, then those jokers are coming here [to Athens].' I owe to my fans!"
The road conference schedule for the Bulldogs in 2024 is no joke. They have open the slate with a trip to Lexington to play a top-25 Kentucky team, then travel to an always elite Alabama team after that. Later in the year, they'll add trips west to play top-10 programs in Texas and Ole Miss. That's not even mentioning the home matchups against Tennessee and Auburn plus a neutral site game against Clemson to open the season.
"There's no way to ever truly balance a fairness of schedule [in the SEC]," he continued. "But I think flipping [the schedule] gives us our best shot."
The schedule is tough, but it's that way for everyone in college football as the fluctuation of the landscape continues. Fans are going to need to come to an understanding that a 10-win season will mean more than it might have just a few years ago, says Brooks.
"We're going to get to a point where we've got to understand as a fan base, all of us, that it's going to be a lot more 10-2 teams across the country," Brooks said. "And we're talking 12 or a 14-team playoff. Look, nobody's complaining if the Falcons go 13-4, so it's just changing that mindset a little bit [in terms of] having to be 12-0 or 11-1."
One additional nugget from the AD was the status of the matchup with UCLA in 2025. The game was previously scheduled as a home-and-home back in 2015, but remains tentative as they transition into the Big 10.
“With the evolution of the Big Ten schedule and our schedule, we’ve got to make decisions that are best for us and they’ve got to make decisions that are best for them,” he said. “Everything is in play. We’ll see. It’s a fluid situation.”
