The UGA Athletics Association Board of directors wrapped up its annual spring meeting Friday morning at Lake Oconee by approving a fiscal year 2022 budget of $150,290,994.

Prior to making the budget official, athletic director Josh Brooks thanked Georgia’s coaches and staff for adhering to the “mission critical” mandate that was issued during the 2021 fiscal year, thanks to Covid-19.

Because of the measures, Georgia was one of just a few Power 5 athletic departments that did not have any staff layoffs, cuts or furloughs.

‘’We’re talking about some big schools making massive cuts and laying staff members off,’’ Brooks said. ‘’We had no layoffs, no furloughs, no pay cuts. And we were able to still do a lot of things, like charter flights. The question was, whenever an expense came up, ‘Does it impact the life of the student-athlete?’

Moving forward, Brooks said the lessons learned from 2021 will be implemented when adhering to the 2022 budget, along with the beginning of a return to pre-pandemic policies.

Also Friday, the board heard reports from student representatives Kearis Jackson (football) and Caroline Chipman (soccer) about initiatives by the Georgia Way program.

Faculty Athletics Representative David Shipley also reported on the initial stages of educating student athletics in upcoming Name, Image and Likeness legislation.

It was also announced that student athlete representatives for the 2022 academic year will be Meg Kowalski (tennis) and Josh Stinson (baseball).