UGA board hears about SEC expansion, football woes

By Tim Tucker

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

ATHENS — At a meeting of the University of Georgia Athletic Association’s board of directors Friday, UGA President Michael Adams referred to conference realignment as “the elephant in the room.”

Actually, there were two elephants in the room, the other being the beleaguered state of the Bulldogs’ football program.

Both eventually drew attention as the board held its regularly scheduled fall meeting.

Adams addressed one of the hot-button issues late in his prepared remarks, telling the board that the SEC “did not initiate” expansion talks and “still has no desire to see the Big 12 break up.” But he acknowledged that the SEC has “high regard” for Texas A&M and “likely would take them if they are cleared of [Big 12] affiliations and legal obligations, which is something they are now working on.”

The other burning issue surfaced near the end of the meeting when Adams asked for final comments or questions.

“There are many of us who are really concerned about the status of the football program,” said Tommy Lawhorne, a board member from Columbus. “Yet we have confidence in [athletic director] Greg McGarity to get us to where we want to be.”

“I’ll echo that,” added Bob Bishop, a board member from Athens.

Adams, who chairs the board, did not respond to that exchange before adjourning the meeting and afterward declined to comment on that or other feedback he has received in the aftermath of the Bulldogs’ season-opening loss to Boise State.

“You know what my life is like,” Adams said. “I get multiple opinions on every side of every issue.”

McGarity acknowledged that he has heard from a wide swath of Bulldog Nation this week.

“You get a lot of comments both ways,” McGarity said. “It runs the gamut on good, bad, we’re-with-you, we’re-pulling-out. I think it’s the normal emotions that people have.”

Earlier in the meeting, Adams called on fans, particularly students, to enthusiastically support the team, which will open its home schedule Saturday in sold-out Sanford Stadium against South Carolina.

“The overall work of our student-athletes across the board is exemplary,” Adams said, “and I want to see all of us line up to support [them] in every way possible.”

On the issue of conference realignment and expansion, Adams said in an interview after the meeting that the Big 12 “is trying to figure out” its future, “and I don’t see the SEC acting with finality until that is done.”

“I think all of us [in the SEC] were happy with the way life was,” Adams said. “This issue did not start with the SEC. It started with undulations in the Big 12. I’m not sure that message has gotten out there as clearly as we might wish it had.”

Adams said it is “too early to say” that college athletics is headed toward four 16-school super-conferences, as widely speculated. “There are multiple individual decisions that would have to take place before you could say that,” Adams said. “I think some of the reports have gotten ahead of the reality.”

Asked how many members he expects the SEC to have next season — 12, 13, 14, 16? — Adams laughed and said: “I’m just not going there. You guys [in the media] have the liberty of speculating. I don’t have that liberty.”

The board had a light agenda in terms of action items. It approved spending $300,000 to improve seating and access at the upper courts of the Dan Magill Tennis Complex and $530,000 for a new computer server room in Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall.

On another matter, McGarity said after the meeting that he expects the SEC to increase its conference schedules in men’s basketball from 16 to 18 games in the 2012-13 season.