Josh Brooks is pondering the future.
Brooks conceded future schedules face challenges, particularly if the SEC elects to go with the 3-6, nine-game schedule model being discussed.
The 2026 UGA schedule, for example, already has four non-conference games scheduled: UCLA, Western Kentucky, Louisville and Georgia Tech.
“If it went to nine (conference games), yeah, by that metric, we couldn’t play 13 games,” Brooks said, asked if UGA might have to cancel or move a future game. “That’s something we’d all each individually have to deal with if we went down that pathway (of nine SEC games).”
Brooks shared how Georgia’s football scheduling strategy might also change.
“As things evolve, and as you look at the criteria of the playoff situation and what’s important, those metrics could change,” Brooks said. “But I think right now we’ve been in more of a mode where it’s been 10 (Power 5 games), a G5 (Group of 5) team and an FCS (opponent).
“It’s been up and down a little bit with that. You’ve seen different schedules, but that’s kind of been the standard metric we’ve been working off. Sometimes, it could shift to be nine (Power 5 opponents) and two G5s (Group of 5 schools) and an FCS.”
Well, that last model sure ain’t gonna work if the conference schedule goes to nine.
There’s something Brooks didn’t mention, though, that his counterpart in Florida did.
I don’t want the game to leave Jax, but I really don’t want the game to leave Jax based on a unilateral decision made on Georgia’s end.
Get The Picture 
Should the UGA AD plus administration be all in on CKS, the WLOCP is done, over, kaput, finished….should the reserve fund speak up, it stays for at least one more extension
LikeLike
There are a couple of bridges too far in what Brooks is saying.
1) 8 games means no more Auburn as an annual game. We all know this.
2) 9 Power 5, 2 G5, and 1 FCS means no Fech in a 9-game SEC slate. This also means likely dropping the high profile OOC games if Fech stays on the schedule with an 8-game slate.
3) Quit the negotiating in the press and secure the WLOCP in Jacksonville. If we pull out of Jacksonville unilaterally (I don’t care about the rationale), I’m done (and I haven’t been in 20+ years).
Get the 3-6 model done with Auburn as an annual game, Jere & Josh. Keep the Cocktail Party in Jacksonville. Get rid of 1 cupcake per year and play 11 Power 5 games.
LikeLiked by 2 people
1) yep
2) yep again
3) yep yet again (but I go almost every year)
#) bingo it ain’t that hard and its what the people want!
LikeLike
79, I’m betting this is what Mickey wants, too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
ESPN’s wanted nine conference games all along and hasn’t swayed Sankey. That should tell you something.
LikeLike
I’m guessing Sankey hasn’t gone public with it (or more likely, ESPN hasn’t come up with the number that will make Sankey pound the table for 9).
LikeLike
They can $$$$$$$way him when they want.
LikeLike
As someone said yesterday (may have been you), it is pretty sad when ESPN is your only hope, but the fact of the matter is people want to see top teams play top teams with something meaningful at stake – that is what brings in the marginal viewer and moves the needle for ESPN!
LikeLike
I don’t see us dropping GT
LikeLike
Spot on. JHC, it’s like we need an Inspector General for college football to keep these MFers from going off the rails. Seth Emerson, if you’re reading this, please relay that it is absolutely egregious that there is EVEN A DEBATE on whether we kill Auburn-Georgia (among others) so Mississippi State can have 1 more cupcake. Have you all lost your damn minds ?
9 games is not even necessarily for the sake of 9 games. It is a MATHEMATICAL TOOL so we can preserve tradition while still playing everyone enough to be one conference. It does also have the added benefit of increasing revenue, probably enough to outpace that shitty bowl game some of these teams are trying to guarantee.
LikeLike
Oh no, we might have to cancel the Western Kentucky game, can someone hand me my smelling salts?
LikeLiked by 2 people
I doubt that’s the one that goes away.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Which is the saddest part….
LikeLiked by 1 person
The WLOCP is a unique experience in college football – there are only a few other neutral site matchups, and there’s only one Cocktail Party. Only two schools get to have that – and you’ll see fans of other schools show up just to be a part of it.
So naturally, we’re going to fuck it up.
But hey, at least we’ll finally be able to get good recruits with the extra home game every other year, we sure haven’t been able to tempt athletes to come to Athens any other way.
LikeLiked by 5 people
Look, we’ll never win the national title with this sort of backward thinking that we have to play in Jax because of “tradition” errrrr…. /s
LikeLiked by 3 people
If the WLOCP is cancelled I want it to be by gator fear of ever entering Kirby’s house of gator pain. As coach said break those TMF’s make them never want to play you again.
We finally have the guy who gets it steering the ship no need to leave now.
LikeLiked by 2 people
But said captain seems to be the one most interested in steering us away from our annual call upon the Port of Jacksonville…..
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nah, that’s just posturing for negotiations. He’s fine playing games in Atlanta and Charlotte.
LikeLiked by 1 person
1-7 with South Carolina as our permanent opponent will be the result under some tortured logic of what is best for the league. Jax then bids heavily for the WLOCP to be a non-conference game. They’ll do the same to Texas-OU.
LikeLike
Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!
LikeLike
How about a home and away with Florida and very third year it gets played in the home stadium. I’d love for the last taste of Florida in our house to be washed out of my collective memory.
LikeLike