The Georgia football beast gains weight as the Big Dawg eats.
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Competing in the Southeastern Conference requires more than slapping a G on the helmet. For the Georgia football program to run with the big dawgs, the beast must be fed. Georgia is feeding the beast a couple extra scoops of dawg food in the coming year.
Marc Weiszer reported in dogbytesonline.com. that the University of Georgia is increasing the Bulldog football budget 35.66 percent from 17.25 million dollars to almost 23.5 million dollars. With the increase in the football budget and the building of the Indoor Athletic Facility, University President Jere Morehead and Athletic Director Greg McGarity intend to win or spend big trying.
Almost half the increase is a result of salary increases for Head Coach Mark Richt and his assistants. Compensation and monthly payroll totals increased from 7.8 million dollars to 10.7 million dollars .
“We feel like we do a good job of coaching and we do a good job of teaching young men how to help them get their degree, how to succeed in college and help them succeed in life,” Richt said Wednesday according to Weiszer after two days of SEC spring meetings. “We think that’s part of our mission.”
Football revenue funds all other sports teams. To generate the needed income requires huge investments in football. Salary increases make up about half of the 6.1 million dollar increase over last year.
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Coach Mark Richt received a raise of $800,000 for an annual salary of $4 million. Defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt’s salary increases from 850,000 dollars to 1.3 million dollars . New offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer’s salary is pegged at 957,200 dollars , 350,000 dollars more than his predecessor, Mike Bobo, received. There were significant raises granted to other assistants as well.
Georgia’s assistant coach pay was sixth in the SEC and 14th nationally before the latest increases. LSU, Alabama, Auburn, Texas A&M and South Carolina were ahead of Georgia.
Recruiting travel, the beast that feeds the beast, is budgeted 1.25 million dollars , almost double the previously budgeted 638,000 dollars .
Georgia plays an additional home game in 2015 requiring a guarantee pay out to visiting teams of 1.2 million over 2014’s guarantee pay outs. The team will also fly out of Athens instead of Atlanta costing an extra 343,000 dollars in expenses.
This is money well spent. The Southeastern Conference is the toughest football conference in America. Every school expects to compete for the championship and football budgets reflect that expectation.