Kirby Smart: High school recruits paid 'as much as $20,000 a month' to uphold commitment

Georgia head football coach Kirby Smart is now taking on college collectives for alleged unscrupulous recruiting efforts involving high school prospects.

Smart opened up about the issue Wednesday, revealing to Yahoo! Sports that collegiate-based collectives “are striking deals with high school recruits” and paying “as much as $20,000” per month to keep their commitments, according to Yahoo! Sports‘ Ross Dellenger. Smart added that if a prep prospect de-commits from that collective’s school, they’re being asked to return their compensation, per Dellenger.

The head coach at Georgia complaining about high school recruits being held to their prior commitments is interesting given how often smaller programs with fewer resources — especially with regard to NIL — complain about major Power Four programs poaching their commitments with more favorable financial offers.

Still, collectives adding a recurring financial incentive in order to secure a high school player’s commitment — many of which come months if not years before they’re able to officially sign with a program — only highlights the free-wheeling ways many schools are taking advantage of the current unregulated NIL market prior to the finalization of the House v. NCAA settlement.

While the Power Four conferences prepare for the post-House landscape, the multi-billion-dollar settlement still needs to be formally approved by California district court Judge Claudia Ann Wilken, which could come anytime, according to On3’s Pete Nakos.

Report: NCAA to cede enforcement to new organization upon House settlement approval

If approved, the House v. NCAA settlement would pave the way for revenue-sharing between NCAA schools and student-athletes, with some programs able to share roughly $20.5 million annually, or 22-percent of the average Power Four school’s annual revenue, along with approximately $2.75 billion in back damages to former college athletes over a 10-year span. Football programs are expected to receive as much as 75-percent of each school’s revenue allotment, followed by men’s basketball (15%), women’s basketball (5%) and the remainder of sports (5%).

The settlement, which was recently revised at Wilken’s request, would also mean strict roster limits in football (105), men’s and women’s basketball (15), baseball (34), softball (25), men’s and women’s soccer (28) and volleyball (18), though the revised plan allows for grandfathering in of all current student-athletes and any that were preemptively cut before the settlement was finalized.

Last week, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported the development of the College Sports Commission, a new collegiate enforcement arm that would effectively replace the NCAA, establish and uphold new compliance rules while also doling out punishment for all violators. The CSC’s new CEO is expected to come from outside college athletics, according to ESPN, with the expectation a hire could be made soon after the House v. NCAA settlement is finalized.

“All the institutions are going to have new membership agreements that we’re all agreeing to these new rules,” an industry source told ESPN. “The CEO is going to have responsibility to make sure everything is enforced and the governance model is sound. It’s a critically important role for the future of college sports and college football.”

— On3’s Nick Schultz and Pete Nakos contributed to this report.