With a much-anticipated hearing for final approval of a proposed multi-billion-dollar settlement in the House-NCAA athlete-compensation antitrust cases set for next Monday, Georgia football coach Kirby Smart described anxious times for what may unfold in the sport and college athletics.
“Everybody’s on pins and needles because we don’t know exactly what’s going to come out of this,” Smart said.
Football rosters are expected to be capped at 105 players, but Smart said teams may not have to get down to that number until the start of the season.
“The 105 number, the NIL number, what’s the cap number? What is this going to be?” Smart said Tuesday night.
Coaches are balancing that against the backdrop of the transfer portal opening again on April 16 and closing on April 26.
Agents are shopping players already before the portal opens.
“There’s stuff going on right now, guys, in college football,” Smart said. “There’s people reaching out to have a Zoom call and present all the players they represent that are on teams, including our teams, and they want to invite people to the Zoom so they can watch and see who’s going in the portal or shopping who’s in the portal before the portal. ‘You want to get on a Zoom and look at all these players?’ I’m like, ‘Well, what if some of them are mine?”
Georgia is preparing for revenue sharing to kick in on July 1, pending next week’s hearing before U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken.
The school is planning to directly pay players the maximum allowed of about $20.5 million, with about $2.5 million of that going to new scholarships
Football players are expected to get at least $13.5 million and can make more with over-the-cap deals.
“I think everybody’s got to take a big pause, a deep breath because of what’s going on in basketball right now is crazy,” Smart said.
Speaking more broadly, Smart said: “There’s a lot of people doing, not illegal things, they’re just manipulative money things to try to move this, move that so I can free up this. What’s going to happen is there’s probably going to be a bubble or a spike and then agents are literally trying to take advantage of that every minute they can. They want to get all they can for their client, but at the end of the day it may be backfire because there’s going to be a correction in the market at some point when this cap hits, if the cap is truly what the House settlement wants it to be. If there is a truly a cap, if you just try to keep frontloading and pay out people and what’s going on in basketball now and football now, people trying to beat a date. Then what’s going to happen? People expect that some money the next year and it’s not there because you’re in a cap.”
Smart, a former Georgia safety, is viewed by many as the most successful coach in the sport now.
He has won two national titles and is the highest paid at more than $13 million per year.
He said a competitive balance from a cap may not play out that way.
“It could be one of the most legendary moments in all of college sports with what’s coming up on this ruling and how people will try to manipulate a cap when all we’re trying to do is make a competitive balance,” he said. “It’s really unfortunate that I don’t know if competitive balance is going to come out of it. I don’t know if the kids win in this model that we currently have, if they win long term, like long term when we have to cut sports and cut other things. Are the kids going to be the winners of this? I don’t know. College sports have been around a long time and given many an opportunity and by all means, I want these kids to make money, but what’s going on right now is not good for anybody.”
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