Georgia head football coach Kirby Smart is clearly not a fan of how the transfer portal is being used by agents of players currently participating in practices across the country. Then, you add in the upcoming House settlement that will limit roster sizes, and the Bulldogs coach was animated, to say the least.
The upcoming House settlement that will see college athletes being paid by the schools they attend, along with cutting roster sizes, has led to a myriad of questions by the coaches involved in the process. A lot of this has been frustration, with programs battling each other for players, thinking there will be a cap as to how much money schools will allocate to each sports program on their campuses.
Right now, there are schools across the country trying to lock-in deals with players before April 7, which is when the settlement could be approved by a judge. Now, it should be noted that both sides are going to present their final arguments, and the judge overseeing the case could take a few days, or a few weeks, to decide on the final judgment.
Kirby Smart sounds off on current transfer portal and NIL nonsense surrounding House Settlement (Photo by Eakin Howard/Getty Images)
There isn’t much doubt around the country that there will be an agreement reached, which would allow schools to spend upwards of $22 million, which will go to the players. The problem right now is that while football programs will get a majority of that money ($15-$17 million per year), athletic administrators are having to decide how to split the rest of the potential pot with other sports.
For Kirby Smart, he did not hold back on Tuesday when discussing the ongoing conversations that surround the upcoming changes. But he did warn folks that everyone needs to just relax for a minute.
“I think everybody’s gotta take a big pause right now, and take a deep breath,” Kirby Smart started. “What’s going on with basketball right now is crazy, and we don’t know everything that’s gonna come out with April 7th (potential settlement reached), which might be the settlement date, when we might get a lot more information. Everybody’s on pins and needles because we don’t know exactly what’s gonna come out of this.
“What I do know is that we’re gonna continue to recruit players that love football, passionate about football. and don’t put money as the number one answer. I’ve never met a really good player that it’s all they care about. So, the 105 number, the NIL number, what’s the cap number.”
Kirby Smart Is Astonished At Ways Players Are Being Shopped
One of the more interesting parts of the transfer portal, along with NIL, is how athletes are being shopped to other schools that might be looking to fill a position. There are agents who are not waiting on the portal to open, which should not come as a shock, but it’s how they are presenting their clients to coaches across the country that has irked guys like Kirby Smart.
As for what has surprised him during this whole process, which dates back a few years, is how agents are so nonchalant about presenting their clients before the portal actually opens. If you think your favorite athlete doesn’t have a representative trying to find the best deal, while practice is still ongoing around the country, you are fooling yourself with this thinking.
For Kirby Smart, he cut straight to the point during his press conference after the Bulldogs got off the practice field.
“There’s people reaching out to have a Zoom call, and present all the players they represent that are on teams, including our teams,” Kirby Smart noted. “And they want to invite people to the zooms so they can watch and see who’s going into the portal, or shopping who’s in the portal, before the portal.
“‘Do you want to get on a Zoom and look at all these players?’, well what if some of them are mine? It could be one of the most legendary moments in all of college sports with what’s coming up with this ruling,” Kirby Smart noted. “And how people are going to try and manipulate the cap, when all we’re trying to do is to make for competitive balance. It’s really unfortunate that I don’t know if a competitive balance is gonna come out of it.”
At the end of the day, Kirby Smart is clearly frustrated with how this is playing out, especially when it comes to some of the tactics being used on players. While he’s all for them being paid, he doesn’t know who the true winners of all this will be.
“I don’t know if the kids win in this current model that we have, if they win longterm. Like longterm, when we have to cut sports and cut other things. Are the kids gonna be the winners of this? I don’t know, college sports has been around a long time and given many an opportunity. By all means, I want these kids to make money, but what’s going on right now is not good for anybody.”
Kirby Smart Knows This Financially Won’t Last In College Sports
At the moment, the transfer portal for college basketball is currently open, and the deals being made out of it are astonishing compared to previous years.
Speaking with multiple coaches over the last three weeks, the going rate for a star point guard right now is anywhere between $2 to $3 million a season. Having seen a few charts that go into detail about what the market is right now, a mid-major guard could get upwards of $500,000 for one season.
And while this is ongoing, schools are trying to pay these players before the House settlement is agreed to, which means they can frontload the deals and keep them off the upcoming rev-share agreement.
“There’s a lot of people doing not illegal things, but must manipulate money things to move this, move that, so I can free up this,” Kirby mentioned. “And what’s gonna happen is there’s probably gonna be a bubble or spike. Agents are trying to take advantage of that every way they can. They wanna get all they can for their client.
“But at the end of the day, it may backfire because there’s going to be a correction in the market at some point when the cap hits, if the cap is truly what the House settlement wants it to be. If there’s truly a cap, and you continue to try and frontload and pay out people, like what’s going on in basketball and football, with people trying to beat a date. What’s gonna happen when those people expect the same money next year, and it’s not there because you’re in a cap.”
It’s clear that we are in the midst of some unsettling times in college athletics, with a lot of questions left to be answered. But, even if you don’t like Kirby Smart, or think that he’s just complaining, I can promise you that coaches and athletic directors across the country are saying the same thing in meetings every day.
They just might not say it out-loud like Kirby Smart.
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