Georgia is officially entering the season as the favorite to win the SEC. Fans across the country however are quick to push Georgia to the side and overlook them because of their Transfer Portal strategy this season.
College football fans and the media fall in love with the teams that use the Transfer Portal the most. They see these flashy additions as proof that they will be really good teams this year, and when comparing them to Georgia who added the least amount of transfers in the SEC they think these portal heavy teams will pass Georgia by this year.
But that couldn't be further from the truth, and CBS Sports' Bud Elliott might be the only member of the media that understands why.
I wrote some reminders for myself in my notes part of my database, at the end of last season. I'll share a couple on here.
— Bud Elliott (@BudElliott3) July 24, 2026
Don't judge Georgia too much on what it does in the portal. Judge it on who it keeps out of the portal. This roster is loaded, and these guys are going to…
Georgia's lack of incoming transfers is acually a good thing
Georgia only added 15 transfers this offseason which on the surface seems like a bad thing. But this is actually the greatest indicator that Georgia will once again be a really good team this year.
After winning the SEC last season Kirby Smart was able to keep a vast majority of his players in Athens and out of the Transfer Portal. As a result, the Bulldogs have the fifth-most returning production in the country this year. So why would Smart add random players out of the portal when he has a lot of talent returning from a team who just won the conference?
Smart's lack of portal usage also gives off the feeling that Georgia doesn't have as much NIL money as other teams. That however isn't true either as Elliot pointed out because Smart chose to use their NIL money to keep his roster in tact. Georgia's players could've made a lot if they entered the Transfer Portal, but Smart was able to keep them in Athens by paying them just as much.
So instead of judging Smart for his lack of transfers, maybe this is the best thing for Georgia and a sign that their NIL strategy is the best in the country.
Every team in the country should want what Georgia has
Teams love to flex their NIL money by winning big in the Transfer Portal. Instead of doing that though what they should be striving for is exactly what Georgia has.
No team has won more in college football since the start of the NIL era (2021). Georgia has two national titles and three SEC Championships during that time, but even after all of that success people love to pretend that Smart doesn't know what he's doing. They love to act like Georgia is broke and has no NIL money because they don't add a lot of transfers, but in reality they are spending their money in the best way possible.
Georgia has continued signing some of the best recruiting classes in the country. They then are able to win championships with these players while convincing them to stay in Athens instead of transferring to other programs. That clearly is the healthiest thing a program could be doing right now, but for some reason so few teams across the country want to copy them.
That however should be just fine with Georgia because the results speak for themselves. Anyone who disagrees is only proving that they care more about making flashy headlines in the offseason rather than winning on the field when it matters most, and at Georgia the only thing that matters is scoring more than their opponents during the season.
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