Kirby Smart drops bombshell intel on the current state of NIL deals and recruiting for top college football programs
College football has constantly been changing over the past half decade. It seems with every passing week there's some new shift that's threatening the sport at it's very heart in an attempt to rip the sport we know and love apart. SEC Spring Meetings week is no exception.With everyone focused on the SEC schedule, the […]
College football has constantly been changing over the past half decade. It seems with every passing week there's some new shift that's threatening the sport at it's very heart in an attempt to rip the sport we know and love apart. SEC Spring Meetings week is no exception.
With everyone focused on the SEC schedule, the College Football Playoff structure, the Transfer Portal, and more it would be easy to stay distracted and neglect all the recruiting buzz taking place this offseason, but Kirby Smart certainly isn't. In fact, it's seems as though he's rather tired of how wildly out of hand player recruiting has gotten as he dropped some bombshell intel on the current state of NIL and player compensation.
According to Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports, Kirby Smart shared that various collectives representing some of the top college football programs in the country are "striking deals with high school recruits" that pay as much as $20,000 per month just for those high school players to keep their commitments with schools despite not even being on campus yet.
This new age of player compensation has collectives running wild, paying out money to players in a hurry now before the "clearinghouse" age sets in with the new revenue sharing model set to begin very soon. NIL collectives are completely unsure how much and if they'll be able to pay players (fairly and reasonably) above and beyond what schools will directly compensate players with (via revenue sharing). That's led to an untenable wild west of money being thrown around.
Coach Smart probably shouldn't necessarily be the one to complain about collectives being able to pay players above and beyond given that he's at Georgia, but this type of strange demand and payment for players to simply maintain commitments they've already made before even getting to school is absolutely unhinged behavior. It would also explain a few of the rather sudden decommitments from highly coveted four and five star talents in recent weeks.
Kirby Smart (and most SEC coaches) have expressed that they have no problems with players getting paid or entering the Transfer Portal, but it seems there are logical limitations and guardrails most every coach wants put in place to better standardize this ever-changing landscape of college football.
We'll be back with more on this NIL collective discussion, Georgia Bulldogs news, and national College Football coverage here at A to Z Sports soon! Follow me (@FF_TravisM) and A to Z Sports (@AtoZSportsNFL) on X for all the latest football news!
