Georgia approves raises and extensions for Kirby Smart, Josh Brooks
Two of the most important figures in the Georgia athletics department are getting raises. In an executive meeting of the UGA Athletics Board on Thursday, J. Reid Parker Director of Athletics Josh Brooks and head football coach Kirby Smart received pay increases and extensions.
Brooks outlined Smart’s new deal on the conference call, starting by discussing his achievements as the Georgia head football coach through his first eight years. The current term is being extended by two years, giving him a 10-year contract that will pay him an average of $13 million annually. It makes him the highest-paid coach in College Football, something that Brooks mentioned on the call.
Georgia president Jere Morehead praised Brooks before announcing the terms of his new contract, which will extend his contract by one year starting on July 1, 2024. His new salary will be $1.275 million with annual increases of $100,000. Morehead also discussed the fact that Brooks is still “well below” his other athletic directors in the SEC in terms of compensation. He will also have the ability to earn bonuses based on the performance of the athletic programs at UGA.
Brooks will earn extra pay for top 20 and top 10 finishes in the Leerfield Directors Cup each year. There are also performances bonuses available with a maximum annual bonus of $200,000.
Smart is less than two years removed from getting an extension at Georgia through the 2031 football season. He was awarded that contract in June of 2022 and it was worth more than $100 million in total. That deal had raised his pay from just over $7 million per year to $10.25 million during the 2022 season.
It also had built-in annual raises for the Bulldog head man. The final year of that 10-year deal had him earning $12.25 million plus bonuses based on the performance the team.
Prior to agreeing to that extension in 2022, Smart’s previous raise and extension were announced in 2018. That deal payed him an average salary of $7 million over the course of six seasons. At the time it made him one of the top-five highest-paid coaches in College Football but he eventually fell out of that group with other coaches having their contracts reworked.
Smart has come a long way since being hired at Georgia, his first head coaching gig. His initial contract, agreed upon in December of 2015, paid him around $3.75 million annually.
It was just under a year ago that Brooks had his contract reworked. He had two years left on his previous contract when, on the first day of the spring meeting of the Georgia Athletics Board, he was given a six year extension with a hefty raise. Brooks was previously set to make $940,000 in 2023-2024 with a raise to $1.03 million built in for the following year.
The new contract gave him a raise to $1.025 million for the 2023-2024 season with his salary raising by $100,000 each year throughout the term of his six-year deal.
