UGA Athletics Board Convenes for Fall Meeting
September 05, 2025 | General
ATHENS, Ga. — An annual compliance update from Georgia Deputy Athletic Director Will Lawler, an academic report from Faculty Athletics Representative Prof. David Shipley and a presentation from J. Reid Parker Director of Athletics Josh Brooks highlighted the UGA Athletics Board of Directors fall meeting on Friday at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education and Hotel.
Among the highlights, Brooks gave special recognition to Bulldog student-athletes, who once again set a new standard with a school-record 3.26 cumulative GPA during the 2024-25 academic year. In addition, Brooks announced a new football complex expansion project.
Below are a notes from Friday's meeting.
Highlights of Brooks' remarks
- The Georgia Bulldog Club's five-year fundraising total stands at $459 million.
- Women's track and field captured the program's first-ever team national title in 2025.
- Overall, Georgia won four team titles this past year, tying 1998-99 for the most team national championships won in a single athletics season.
- Bulldog baseball had eight players taken in the 2025 MLB Draft, the most for that program since 2019; men's swimmer Luca Urlando captured the World Aquatics Championship in the 200M butterfly; men's track and field's Kyle Garland was the USATF Champion in the decathlon.
- Several Georgia teams have put together the top transfer portal classes in the country — baseball is at No. 1 nationally, softball is at No. 3, men's tennis ranks fourth and women's golf signed four of the top-10 transfers based on stroke average.
- Volleyball 10K Day is set for Oct. 17 vs. Alabama.
- Georgia will begin its Live Between the Hedges concert series on Dooley Field at Sanford Stadium on April 25, 2026 … more details to come.
- The Stegeman Coliseum lights and sound upgrades are expected to be completed Fall 2025.
- Currently, Georgia Athletics has enacted a weapons detection program at Stegeman Coliseum.
- There is a design study ongoing regarding a Sanford Stadium Master Plan.
- The new track and field stadium is scheduled to be completed January 2026.
- Brooks announced a new football facility complex expansion to go where the existing track is now located. Construction on the project will start in January 2026 and is estimated to be completed July 2027.
Highlights of remarks from Faculty Athletics Representative Prof. David Shipley
- The 3.26 GPA earned by Bulldog student-athletes in 2024-25 passed the previous record of a 3.21 GPA, that was set during the 2023-24 academic year.
- Georgia's women's teams combined for a 3.48 GPA last year, with women's golf leading all squads with a 3.73. All 11 women's teams were at or above a 3.05.
- Men's tennis earned the highest GPA on the men's side with a 3.55.
- Elizabeth Isakson (women's swimming and diving) and Alon Rogow (men's track and field) were this year's Joel Eaves Award winners. This honor is given annually to rising seniors with the highest GPAs.
- Malaki Starks (football) and Filipe Costa (men's tennis) were named to the AllState Good Works Team.
- Caitlyn Lyons (equestrian) was in the top-9 for NCAA Woman of the Year.
- Abby McCulloh (women's swimming and diving) was named the H. Boyd McWhorter SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year, while Stephanie Ratcliffe (women's track and field) earned the prestigious National Women's Track and Field National Scholar Athlete of the Year honor.
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