Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said something that not a lot of people want to hear, but he has never been the type to hold back.
When asked a question revolving around the NIL era of college sports and its expenses, Smart indicated that he was worried issues could be caused for other sports. At Georgia and many other programs across the nation, football is king. And spending a certain amount of money on it could cause detriment to surrounding programs.
“Everybody’s going to talk about pro sports and baseball and these teams and these teams that spend,” Smart said during SEC meetings.
“I mean, we are like them, but we’re not," Smart said. "So you can’t make a comparison because of the CBA and the regulatory agencies that govern them. They operate under a different premise. But we’re becoming them. Our spending is rapidly becoming them.
Georgia's Kirby Smart: "My biggest concern for our sport, is we’re going to ruin all the other sports."
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) May 26, 2026
"My biggest concern for our sport is that we’re going to ruin all the other sports. And people say, well, that’s just the way it is. I don’t agree with that because we fund Olympic sports at our program. We develop Olympians. We go to class with people who throw a javelin. Sit in class with an extra person who swims and dives. You learn culture by being with those people.”
One similar question asked if Georgia's football roster could cost $40 million in 2026. He indicated that it had already been done in the past. Depending on how much Georgia spends to continue to compete with other football teams, it could cause harm to the budget available to help fund other sports that may be traditionally considered secondary.
Georgia head coach Kirby Smart lends his support to potential SEC breakaway
The SEC has long been considered perhaps the most dominant conference in all of college football. Whether or not it still is, is up for debate. However, the idea that this conference could be something on its own and still play both competitive and entertaining sports is not.
There has been a good bit of tension from all parties, including Iowa State AD Jamie Pollard, who proposed letting some of the bigger conferences outside of his own just break away.
"I said it three years ago... let them break away," he said. "I would turn it around and say we should break away from them. Let them go, but they have to go in all their sports and see how fun it is to play baseball and softball and track when it’s just the 20 of you."
Smart seems to have the same sentiments, but in a much different way.
I’ve been a huge advocate that if we can’t find rules that everybody plays by, then we should play on our own,” Smart said “I’m not afraid of that. I’m not afraid to break away and say that our conference is strong enough to go out and play... If we could actually function financially, it would make our programs more stable. We could support things financially.”
It will be interesting to see if this acrtually happens, and if we are indeed entering yet another new era of college sports.
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