Georgia dodged a bullet with nation’s No. 1 tight end after NIL report

Georgia has missed on their fair share of recruits in the 2026 recruiting class. One of those recruits is five-star tight end Mark Bowman, who committed to USC over Georgia in May.

Rumors began to swirl immediately after Bowman announced his commitment that his decision was heavily influenced by NIL. Those rumors have now been confirmed on Wednesday by On3 insider Pete Nakos who stated that Bowman’s NIL package from USC is the largest for a tight end in college football history.

Missing on 5-star TE Mark Bowman isn’t all that bad for Georgia

Georgia never wants to lose a recruitment for someone as talented as Bowman. According to the 247Sports composite rankings, Bowman is the top ranked tight end in the country, so that fact alone made this a tough loss for UGA.

But knowing that Bowman is now the highest paid tight end in college makes this loss not so bad. Kirby Smart has made it clear that he will not overpay for any recruit. Smart even shared just last week that they care more about relationships than transactions at Georgia, so if Bowman was as motivated by money as it appears then he was never the right player for Georgia in the first place.

UGA also has done just fine recruiting the tight end position as well in the 2026 class since Bowman chose USC. Georgia now has three tight ends committed to their 2026 class which includes five-star Kaiden Prothro. In fact, all three of Georgia’s tight end commits in this class are ranked inside the top 12 at the position according to 247Sports.

Sure Georgia would have loved to add Bowman to their recruiting class, but after seeing this report and knowing how well Georgia’s done with their tight end class, missing on Bowman no longer matters.