Despite a myriad of questions, Josh Brooks feels progress is being made

MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. – Despite the myriad of questions being asked at this week’s SEC Spring Meetings following the NCAA's settlement of its antitrust lawsuit, Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks feels progress is being made.

“Yeah, we’re making progress, but remember, these are not SEC decisions alone. These things will be decided on the national level, so we’re one piece of a deciding body as we’re talking about settling these big issues,” Brooks told Bulldog beat writers Wednesday afternoon at the Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort. “It’s not about whether we’re going to resolve them. It’s where is our stance getting to things that we can agree to with other groups.”

It's been a lot for coaches, athletic directors, and university presidents to pore through.

After the NCAA settled its antitrust lawsuit for $2.8 billion, the ramifications of the decision will hit colleges everywhere.

“I’m an optimist. I think it’s going well, and I’m excited about where we’re headed. We’ve all said it’s not going to be the same, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be better,” Brooks said. “And once you get your head wrapped around it’s not going to be the same, you can start focusing on how you can make this better–better for the student-athletes, better for the fans, and better for the coaching staffs.

“I’m encouraged. There’s a lot of details to work through. We have time to work through these things, but I’m encouraged and optimistic.”

Although the settlement to pay former student-athletes and current student-athletes will date back to the past 10 years, revenue sharing for current and future student-athletes is also part of the plan.

According to USAToday, that revenue sharing will cost each Power 5 program approximately $20 million per season to meet those costs.

“Just for simple terms, we’re using the 20 million as a good, round number to think of it that way. We know there will be some fluctuations,” Brooks said. “But just for simple thoughts right now, just focus on the number of 20 as a good starting point. But we know that number is going to be … it’s going to be a floating number for a while.”

Another hot-button topic is the possibility of limiting football rosters to 85, which would effectively eliminate walk-ons.

Brooks was asked how much walk-ons currently cost a program.

“That’s a tough number to nail down depending on how much you’re trying to spend. There’s tangible things you can define, like when they’re traveling for a bowl game, equipment, nutrition, things like that,” he said. “But there’s also support that’s harder to quantifiably tell you. The money we spend on academic support, nutrition support, mental health support, and sports medicine support. So, there are some costs involved with 550 student-athletes that make it harder to quantify. But I can tell you off the top of my head that for every student-athlete we spend X on, nutrition, things like that but I don’t have that number off the top of my head.”

However, Brooks made it clear he’s not concerned about the financial numbers when it comes to providing Smart and the Bulldogs what they need to operate at the level it takes to be successful.

“When we talk about numbers, it’s not about money, it’s how do we functionally operate as a program and how do we have safe practices and what does the team need,” Brook said. “The money is the result of it but the money is never the focus of how we’re building a roster or what we need to practice.”

Brooks said the decision to make Kirby Smart the highest-paid football coach was easy.

“I think he’s the best coach in the country and we wanted to show commitment to him that we want him to be our coach for a very long time,” Brooks said. “I think sometimes you have to be proactive in those things and show our trust and confidence in him. I think he’s worth it.”

Last month, Smart signed a 10-year extension that pays him $13 million per year.