Hope you all had a great Memorial Day weekend, and I hope you’re getting ready for a busy week around UGA.
The SEC spring meetings are underway in Destin, Florida, and we could possibly get clarification on the future of the league’s football scheduling model — including when it will adopt a ninth conference game and what that will mean for nonconference scheduling.
There will also be discussions about the plan to expand the College Football Playoff to 16 teams, which could include four automatic qualifiers from the SEC.
The Diamond Dawgs also begin play as the seventh seed in the NCAA baseball tournament and the host for an NCAA Regional.
Not to mention recruiting kicks back into gear this upcoming weekend with a flurry of official visits.
Stay close to DawgNation for all the coverage, including the following stories below.
For the rest of the news, check out our coverage below.
Trivia time
When was the last time Georgia advanced to the College World Series?
Happy guessing! Answer at the bottom of the newsletter.
Georgia baseball earns top seed. Now comes the hard part.
The Georgia baseball team is back hosting a regional for another season.
Thanks to a stellar 42-15 regular season record, the Bulldogs were one of 16 teams selected as regional hosts for the 2025 NCAA Tournament.
Duke, Oklahoma State and Binghamton will all come to Athens this weekend. The Bulldogs know, as is always the case, they will have their hands full.
“Duke’s always been able to pitch. They’ve always, they’re gonna be able to pitch a little bit,” Georgia baseball coach Wes Johnson said. “They’ve got some guys in the middle of the order who are gonna be able to swing the bat. You look at Oklahoma State and others, pitching-rich tradition that they have here, they’ve got two bats in the middle of the order that can really, really hit. Put up big, big power numbers. Binghamton is another one that they’re gonna, it’s kind of funny, their tradition is more offense. They’re more offensively focused, and they probably got 70-ish homers.
“And so, yeah, I mean, I think we got a good challenging regional. We better be ready to play Friday night.”
Georgia will open up against Binghamton on Friday, with the game set for a 12 p.m. ET start at Foley Field. The SEC Network will broadcast the game.
Should Georgia advance, it would face the winner of the Oxford Regional. While Ole Miss is the host, plenty of Georgia fans took notice of the fact that Georgia could end up playing Georgia Tech in a Super Regional, should both teams advance.
As we move further into the summer months, a time-honored tradition involves anonymous coaches weighing in on very public programs.
We got our first taste of such content on Friday when an anonymous coach made his very skeptical thoughts on Georgia known.
“I don’t think this is the same level of talent we’ve seen in the last three or four years,” the quote read. “I think you might see a decline, at least at first, on both lines of scrimmage.”
Georgia did have three players drafted on both the offensive and defensive lines in the 2025 NFL draft. What’s more, neither group was as good as the units were in the 2021 and 2022 seasons when Georgia won a national championship.
Georgia does have plenty of questions entering the upcoming season. The Bulldogs have 13 NFL draft picks to replace from a team that wasn’t up to the same standard as previous teams.
Of course, Georgia has done a better job than any of not only recruiting talent but also developing it.
What continues to be clear is that this Georgia program has plenty of doubt and motivational fuel from outside actors. That is something that has largely been lacking in recent years.
Time will tell if Georgia is able to use that motivation as fuel for 2025.
SEC spring meetings will take place this week, as coaches and administrators descend on Destin, Florida.
Commissioner Greg Sankey spoke at length to reporters on Monday evening, recapping recent events and laying out some of the topics at hand this week.
The league is still waiting to see if the House settlement is finalized, something all parties have been waiting on for over a week. Schools have contingency plans ready regardless of what Judge Claudia Wilken ultimately decides.
From an SEC standpoint, the two big issues at hand are what the future of the College Football Playoff looks like and whether the league expands to nine conference games.
Sankey laid out cases for two prospered College Football Playoff models, one of which would offer four automatic bids to the SEC. The other would guarantee one spot to the conference champion, but schools could compete for 11 possible at-large bids. Both models would see the College Football Playoff expand to 16 teams.
DawgNation’s Mike Griffith took a look at some of the opening comments made by Sankey to set the tone for the week ahead.
Georgia infielder/outfielder Tre Phelps (1) during the Bulldogs' game against Texas A&M on May 15 at Foley Field in Athens.
Credit: Conor Dillon/UGAAA
Quote of the Day
Georgia baseball coach Wes Johnson on the team’s experience level entering the NCAA Tournament:
“Yeah, I think it helps a ton. And then I think that’s the beauty of our league, right? Boy, does it get any more hostile than when we were at Texas, for example, right? I mean, we can go through some of the places we played on the road this year, where the environment was tough. And so, I think doing it in your own ballpark helps. But yeah, I mean, experience, it’s hard to put a price on that. But I think our guys will be ready.”
In Other Sports:
Georgia’s softball run came to an end Sunday when the Bulldogs fell 5-2 to the Florida Gators.
Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, the rival Gators found a way to prevail. Florida will be moving on to the Women’s College World Series, while Georgia’s season comes to an end.
“I’m disappointed that it ended, but I’m super thankful that we went on this journey this season,” Georgia softball coach Tony Baldwin said. “Team 29 for us represents what college softball should be all about, and I’m very thankful for that.”
Georgia ended the season with a 35-23 record. The Bulldogs were unable to win an SEC series during the season, yet still found themselves among the final 16 teams remaining.
The Bulldogs have not been to the Women’s College World Series since 2021 when it beat Florida in the Super Regionals that year.
