Georgia tied a school record with 4 titles in 2024-25. All were in women’s sports.

“If you look back to when we got those football national championships, it almost feels a little bit like some glory days of Georgia athletics,” said women’s tennis coach Drake Bernstein, whose team won both the ITA National Indoor Championships in February and the NCAA Championships in May. “And this year kind of obviously feels exceptional with what equestrian and track did, also. So just being in the same sentence as other national champions and, I don’t know, playing a role in making this year special for UGA athletics is a big deal for all of us over here.”

For tennis, an experienced roster achieved something it had chipped away at for years, losing in the round of 16 in 2022, advancing to the final four in 2023, losing in the finals in 2024 and now going out on top at NCAAs.

Also beneficial was the Bulldogs prioritizing women’s sports, per Bernstein.

Women’s sports at Georgia are no stranger to championships — think 10 national championships for the gymnastics team, including five in a row from 2005-2009 under coach Suzanne Yoculan — and strong attendance.

The Gym Dawgs sold out Stegeman Coliseum in their win vs. Boise State in January (attendance: 10,224), and this past softball season featured a season attendance record at Jack Turner Stadium (52,704 total fans). In October, Georgia volleyball drew 8,376 at its 3-2 win vs. South Carolina at Stegeman, breaking the record for the largest crowd to watch an NCAA volleyball game in the state.

“Women’s sports are celebrated here and they’re featured here,” Bernstein said. “I think that it’s really just been part of the culture here at Georgia … it’s not necessarily just a women’s sports thing, it’s an Olympic sports thing and (athletic director Josh Brooks) is very clear that he wants to support all of the sports and he wants all of us to push for championships or to be in a position to push for championships.”

For equestrian, this was the final year for fifth-year seniors who had received extra eligibility (during the COVID-19 pandemic) and had been a part of the 2021 championship.

“(The seniors) really bled into the team and showed the commitment, the passion, the belief that led to an absolutely magical championship run,” coach Meghan Boenig said. “And there wasn’t a moment, stepping into that arena Day One, where this team — particularly led by those fifth years in our senior class — said anything other than ‘this is what we’re doing and we’re winning this championship.’”

For those on the women’s track and field team, they’ll always get to own a bit of history as the first to win a outdoor national title.

Both the women’s and men’s track and field team placed second at the NCAA Indoor Championship in March, but the outdoor championship was an even better fit, given the events featured.

“They decided that they were going to win the national championship and that’s what they wanted to do,” track and field director Caryl Smith Gilbert said. “And they stayed true to that. We’re more of an outdoor team because 400 hurdles, javelin and hammer are outdoor events. So we didn’t have that indoors and we were still second. So when we did that, we knew that if we could add those field events and the 400 hurdles and all that to the docket and score some points there, we could be very effective and have a really good chance to win.”

There’s a push for Olympic sports at Georgia, Smith Gilbert said, with resources such as a sports psychologist, nutritionist and massage therapists, and the expectation they’ll be able to consistently compete for championships.

With the passing of the NCAA vs. House settlement in early June, the college sports world has undergone a seismic shift. Many see the backpay and revenue sharing system as a step forward for athletes, but there are also questions of how it’ll affect smaller or nonrevenue sports.

While previously Brooks said Bulldogs’ programs will see more than 100 additional scholarships spread among the school’s 21 scholarship sports, other colleges have already announced cuts, such as Washington State announcing it would consolidate its track and field program.

However, Smith Gilbert said she has seen minimal change.

“They’re doing their very best under such trying times to accommodate us without the student athletes feeling much of the pain,” Smith Gilbert said.