“I think it’s his job until he doesn’t want it anymore.”

To the commenter from the other day who thought Seth Emerson was hinting Greg McGarity might be close to being on his last legs as athletic director… nah.

There are varying opinions about the job Georgia’s Greg McGarity is doing and has done as he wraps up his 10th year as the school’s athletic director. But there only two opinions that matter where his performance is concerned: That of UGA President Jere Morehead and that of the Georgia Athletic Association’s board of directors.

McGarity would seem to have the firm backing of both. McGarity was lauded by various student-athletes and members of the board during Wednesday’s winter meeting at the Georgia Center of Continuing Education, after which the president was asked about McGarity directly.

“Well, from my perspective I think Greg and his team are doing an outstanding job,” said Morehead, who also serves as chairman of the athletic board. “We’ll certainly sit down and talk in the next several weeks. But I continue to have great confidence in our athletic director. As does our SEC commissioner, who reminds me that Mitch Barnhart and Greg are the senior statesmen among the SEC athletic directors. So I appreciate all the great work he does for us.”

This isn’t that hard as long as you focus on the only metric by which McGarity is judged by his superiors.  As Emerson ($$) puts it,

There isn’t much urgency right now because things in the athletic department are chugging along, and McGarity has delegated a lot of responsibilities over the last few years. Football is going well and basically runs itself. Kirby Smart and his operations director, Josh Lee, handle nonconference scheduling. Senior deputy AD Josh Brooks is overseeing the $80-million expansion of the Butts-Mehre building, and has overseen the improvements of the gameday experience at Sanford Stadium. Fundraising is also going well. McGarity gave credit to his team, including associate AD Matt Borman. But one of the best fundraisers remains Smart, who since he arrived has been adept at convincing donors why he needs their help. And he’s gotten it — McGarity said $47.5 million has been raised for the $80 million expansion project.

As long as the athletic department is comfortably profitable and there are no embarrassing personal gaffes along the lines of misplaced red panties, there is zero interest in making a change in management.  So if any of you honestly believe that fan disgruntlement with anything from how programs other than football are doing or the quality of the gameday experience is going to make a difference to anyone breathing in Butts-Mehre, all I can tell you is that you’re wasting your time.

Football is a well-oiled machine that continues to separate the fan base from the contents of its wallet and that means Greg McGarity has a job until he wants to walk away.