What UGA AD Josh Brooks says about Georgia football's rather soft 2023 nonconference slate

Georgia football’s official Instagram account put out a post on the 2023 schedule release this week.

Many of the comments weren’t kind.

“With no Oklahoma that non conference is brutal…”

“Worst non-conference schedule we’ve had in a while, excited for Ole Miss though.”

“what a boring schedule 12-0 nine the less”

More: How much is Georgia football paying Ball State as replacement game for Oklahoma in 2023?

“3 cupcakes in the first 4 weeks. Can we stop doing this please?...”

Georgia’s home schedule for 2023 announced in its entirety this week includes FCS program Tennessee-Martin, Ball State, South Carolina and UAB at home to start the season.

Ball State filled a spot where a road game at Oklahoma had been, but was scrapped because the Sooners are joining the SEC by 2025. The return game to Athens was to be in 2031.

“I understand the need and the want for bigger games at home,” athletic director Josh Brooks said when asked about the 2023 schedule after the fall athletic board meeting Friday afternoon at the Georgia Center. “We got stuck in a situation where there really weren’t a lot of options. So the best bet was to go find who could go fill that date and at that point and time there weren’t a lot of options and at that point. Thankfully, we were able to line up Ball State to fill that. It didn’t impact the home schedule other than adding a game.”

Georgia is paying Ball State a $1.6 million guarantee.

Georgia and Oklahoma could have played a neutral site game but the schools did not work that out.

Brooks said there weren’t any Power Five conference options to schedule for 2023, only Group of Five schools that had an opening on that specific date. Georgia turned to ESPN programmer Dave Brown for assistance.

More: How Georgia football gets creative to utilize 'super freak' Brock Bowers in dynamic offense

Brooks said Georgia is solving the complaint about unattractive nonconference games at home through future SEC scheduling—whether it be an eight or nine game schedule. UGA president Jere Morehead said a nine-game schedule could mean renegotiating TV contracts with ESPN.

“Whatever we land on with a new schedule is going to provide a great variability of scheduling,” Brooks said referring of schools rotating more to provide greater frequency of seeing different teams. “When we look at the possibility of one grouping—and not East and West—then you get a greater rotation so you won’t get stagnant.”

Georgia and Texas had scheduled home-and-home games scheduled for 2028 and 2029, but those games “are going to be folded into the normal schedule,” Brooks said.

With Texas and Oklahoma set to play in the SEC in 2025, Brooks was noncommittal on the home-and-home series with UCLA in 2025 and 2026. UCLA is slated to join the Big Ten.

“Don’t know yet,” Brooks said. “We’ll see about that. I don’t want to speak for them right now.”

As for the Georgia-Florida game in Jacksonville that the schools are under contract through the 2023 game with an option to extend it. Coach Kirby Smart has voiced wanting to have the games on campus to be able to host recruits in Athens for a rivalry game.

“One of the key dominoes in this whole equation is getting our conference schedule set,” Brooks said. “We still have time on that. We’re not in a rush on that. We’re locked in through ’23 anyway, but we want to see where we are with the conference schedule before we really dig in.”

Said Morehead: “There are just so many issues that have to be resolved before we even talk about Jacksonville.”

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks on filling out 2023 schedule