Maestro, the music if you will:
The Diamond ‘Dawgs have bowed out of the postseason. Collegiate track, softball and golf have closed up shop for the year. Friends, it is officially the offest part of the offseason.
That’s not my problem. It’s not your problem. It’s our problem. And collective problems call for collective solutions. In that spirit we present Free Form Friday, an open-ended community exploration of, well, all kinds of stuff. It’s sort of like the in-season Friday Tailgate, only without the structure a forthcoming opponent provides. Think of it as the gateway to your weekend.
This Friday I pose to you, fellow Dawg Sporters, a simple question: what letter grade would you assign to Georgia’s 2025-2026 sports season? I don’t mean just in the recently concluded baseball season or the football season that draws so much of our attention. I mean as a collective athletic endeavor, across all sports.
My grade? A solid A. Not an A+, but also not an A-. Here’s how I arrived at that mark:
I don’t think any college football season that ends in an SEC-By God football championship is a bad one, even if it involves an earlier than hoped postseason exit. Basketball likewise made the men’s and women’s tournaments, which is sort of the expectation In Athens from where I sit.
Womens track took home a national title and the men were national runners (pun intended) up. You can’t get much better than that. Gymnastics returned to national prominence with a top six national finish. Golf and tennis were both national title contenders, and obviously baseball had its best outing in over a decade.
Football remains the straw that stirs the drink for this fanbase, and there was certainly some disappointment to bow out of the CFP at the earliest available opportunity for a second season in a row. I don’t think that’s the result Bulldog fans (or Kirby Smart and his staff) would consider their annual goal. And if the ‘Dawgs had made a deeper run or once again hoisted the Dr. Pepper Championship Trophy I would have bumped up that grade. Had the Hoop Hounds made an improbable Sweet Sixteen run I perhaps might also have given the year the highest mark possible.
But for an athletic program whose bogey for many years has been excellence, true national title contention in every sport, you have to say this was a season that met that goal. Unlike in some past seasons I can’t name a high profile UGA sporting team that was just bad this year.
In an era of budget cuts for non-revenue sports and even some SEC schools outright cutting teams, Georgia’s athletic performance this year was dangerously near unparalleled. I don’t always agree with how Josh Brooks and his team have handled the shifting tides of college sports. But they and the Bulldog coaches, staff, and athletes across all sports deserve a hearty pat on the back for this season. It remains great to be a Georgia Bulldog.
Go ‘Dawgs!!!
