UGA AD Josh Brooks has also gotten a pay bump to bring him closer to par with his coevals.
It’s good to be Kirby Smart.
Profitable, too.
The top ‘Dawg wasn’t exactly clipping coupons before. But today the Board of Governors of the UGA Athletic Association approved a two year contract extension that takes his current deal through December 2033 with an annual salary of $13 million per year. The deal also includes bonuses of up to $1.55 million.
The new deal is a $1.75 million per year bump over Smart’s prior contract, and pushes him past Clemson’s Dabo Swinney to become college football’s highest-paid coach.
In my book he’s still a bargain. After his first season the Red and Black have either won a national title, played for a national title, or played in the SEC championship game every single season. The Bulldogs became the only team to win back-to-back national championships in the playoff era. It’s the most sustained success the program has ever had. And it’s coincided with seismic shifts in the sport’s landscape, tremors which have caused other coaches to leave the sport but which Smart has navigated adeptly.
Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks also received a contract extension with a new annual salary of $1.275 million, and scheduled annual increases of $100,000. The deal is recognition of Brooks’ status as an up-and-comer among athletic administrators nationally.
While I don’t know that Brooks is a threat to go anywhere soon, Georgia really needed to bump his pay to keep up with the Joneses. Brooks’ $855,000 deal had been the lowest among the league’s athletic directors. For comparison, Florida’s Scott Stricklin earns $1.795 million a year, Kentucky’s Mitch Barnhart makes $1.2 million, LSU’s Scott Woodward has a $1.85 million salary. Tennessee’s Danny White earns a jaw-dropping $2.31 million annually (I don’t know the exchange rate for Hillbilly dollars versus U.S. dollars but that still seems like a lot.