Kirby Smart sees danger in direction college athletics are going
ATHENS, Ga. — Being a college coach has always been exhausting. There’s more to it than at any other level, being required to recruit for the future while also developing your players currently on campus. One eye must be on the present while the other is forced to look ahead more than you might like. Add in recently emerging factors like NIL and the transfer portal, and Kirby Smart would tell you its an unsustainable climate.
Reports surfaced earlier this week about a proposed College Football Super League. It would feature 80 teams, paid athletes, promotion and relegation, and maybe most importantly, no NCAA. Football would break off entirely from the other spots, and it’d be the end of college athletics as we’ve known it for years and years.
“It’s dangerous for the other sports, significantly dangerous,” Smart said during a recent radio interview, conducted prior to the news of the Super League, on 92.9 The Game. “If you’re passionate about going over to men’s tennis, women’s tennis, baseball or you love track and want to see our men’s and women’s teams perform – that’s what I love about Athens, there’s always a great sporting event – they’re in the most jeopardy because they’re non-revenue and they’re going to be depending on football. When football revenue has to get dispersed other places, there’s no unlimited deal, the money’s going to run out. What’s the first thing that’s going to get cut? I don’t know the answer to that, Josh (Brooks) can tell you, but it’s unfortunate that it’s come to this. I think the revenue sports and some of those athletes deserve to make NIL and make money and share in the great TV revenue we get, but it should be under a little bit more control.”
What exactly does more control look like? There’s a bunch of different answers that easily could apply to the open-ended question. Smart took it and ran with it in the direction of NIL. He’s been around coaching to know that players are going to be able to survive without the big bucks up front and believes that type of money should be earned both on and off the field.
“I think if you rewarded people on the back end with graduation and also on the front end when they come in and you help them – look, there’s a group of players that left here three years ago, let’s call it Jordan Davis, Devonte Wyatt, whoever, they all got by on a full scholarship and Alston money and the other help they were able to get legally through the University. They didn’t have a terrible career or a bad situation,” Smart said. “You’ve got kids now that might make $5,000-6,000 a month that say they’re broke, they don’t have enough. I’m like, ‘Wait, just three years ago, the same guys lived here and they didn’t get that and they seemed to do okay.’ So where does it stop? What’s the stipend that you can get?”
“Maybe in the SEC, Big Ten, power four conferences, you get a certain amount your freshman year and then it moves up, and then after your third year when you’re eligible for the draft, you can go make whatever you can make, whatever the market says,” he continued. “They’re doing that already because they can transfer. But set it at a ground level for an incoming guy and a second year guy so that your vets, your older players – the NFL got that right when they had the CBA and they weren’t paying rookies more than a guy that’s been in the league 10 years. Once you fix that, it makes the hierarchy much better.”
While NIL and realignment of what the sport looks like aren’t exactly tied together, you can’t completely discuss one without the other at least coming up. It’s definitely a tricky situation, and there are decision makers higher up than the head coach to make the tough choices. However, as potentially the top voice in College Football now with Nick Saban retired, it’s certainly interesting to hear what Smart has to say and what ideas he might have, seeing if eventually college athletics looks something like what he’s imagined.
