Kirby Smart offers idea for fixing college football's transfer portal problem

Kirby Smart has been one of the loudest voices in college football for quite some time, not shying away from speaking up with his opinion on the sport’s biggest topics. After the Orange Bowl, he expressed a desire for college football to “fix” the problems that presented themself in Georgia’s 63-3 blowout of Florida State. Talking more about that on Thursday, it’s clear Smart sees it as a bigger issue than opt outs.

“Yeah, the comments were spoken more towards not FSU, just in general, the situation college football is in. I think it’s having its effect on – indirectly it’s affecting kids. A lot of people think it’s good for kids to have so many options. I tend to disagree,” Smart said during an interview on 92.9 The Game. “What wears on so many of our players and players across college football is, ‘What else can I be doing? Where else can I go and get immediate success? Where is the best pathway for me?’ A lot of times, the best pathway is right where your feet are.”

Smart is of course talking about the transfer portal and the option players have twice a year to enter their name to explore options and potentially play elsewhere. The first window of the transfer portal is now closed – although Nick Saban’s departure from Alabama opens a new 30-day window for those in Tuscaloosa – and a second will open in the spring (May 1-15). Georgia saw 18 scholarship players enter – all of whom have found their new spots – and the Bulldogs added five of their own (and may not be done). It’s not something Smart is against, he just hopes to see players making decisions that won’t have negative impacts on them down the road.

“If you have the thought in your head always that there is grass greener on the other side, that impacts you. That impacts you academically, impacts you emotionally, it impacts your mental health because you’re constantly thinking about the alternative. I don’t know that right now we’re in the right place when guys can transfer twice and can go two times a year. That’s a lot of doubt,” Smart said. “As coaches, we really just want to know what our roster is going to be for a year. I don’t think there is any coach that is saying kids shouldn’t be able to transfer or make money, that’s all out there and that’s a good thing when it is used the right way. It’s just unfortunate that it has gone as far as it has. It’s led a lot of kids to make, you know you think they’re the best decisions for them but they look back and most of our kids look back and say ‘Golly coach, I messed up. I just didn’t know any better.'”

Smart’s solution? A change in the way kids are committed to schools upon signing. He sees a world in which student-athletes would be given the option to either agree to stay at a school for two, maybe three, years and develop before having the ability to leave if it’s not the right fit when the time is up OR come to an agreement where the student-athlete is treated as an employee, can earn the NIL benefits but could also be released from the agreement (i.e. cut) at any point in time.

“People will quickly point at coach’s salaries and people will point at coach’s can move and go freely, and I get that argument, that is why you have to be careful when you talk about it. But coaches can also be fired. Coaches can be terminated on their contracts and coaches have buyouts of which you know none of the players have those things,” Smart said. “I would be really comfortable if a kid checked a box before he came to school and said I’m going to be a student athlete on scholarship and I get to keep my scholarship for four, five years. Or if a kid said, I wanted to come in and have NIL, which is really pay-for-play now, I’m going to have this box but I can lose that and be terminated.”

“Most kids would choose the NIL path, but you’d have 15 to 20 kids a year that would say, ‘You know it I’ll go take a full ride and take my scholarship’ and say, ‘I’ll make a commitment to staying there two, maybe three years.’ Can’t transfer for those two to three years and then after you’ve been in a program for two or three years, you’re free to go play out your eligibility somewhere else … 100 percent (he’d be comfortable with guaranteeing that time), because that is what you need to develop a player. Two, maybe three years. When kids have been in our program for two or three years and they don’t see that they’re going to have playing time, most of the time they’re wanting to go somewhere else. And we’re comfortable with that, because they haven’t blossomed all the way to the point they needed to. But most of the ones that make the decision to go quickly, they make it all about immediate gratification. That’s the toughest part. That makes it hard.”

Whether Smart’s idea is realistic or not, that remains to be seen. NCAA decisions makers have tough choices ahead of them over the next several years. However, with college athletics constantly changing – and a major shake up on the football front happening in 2024 – it’s always worth Smart, one of the most decorated and respected coaches in the sport, making suggestions.