Kirby Smart Talks NIL Success at Georgia
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ATHENS - For some reason, there’s a narrative going around in college football that Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs aren’t using NIL the way other programs are.
Well, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
We’ve seen what Texas A&M, Miami, Tennessee, Texas, and other major programs are doing to use NIL to help bring in some of the nation’s top recruits. But Kirby Smart doesn’t need to promise NIL deals to recruits to land their commitment. He has a national championship ring, a long list of players selected in the first-round of the NFL draft, and he’s shown he can help his players earn NIL money when the opportunity approaches.
Smart spoke about NIL to reporters on Wednesday morning during SEC Media Days...
“Our representative of the collective told us there was 95 NIL deals in the program”, Smart told reporters. “We arguably had the highest-paid defensive lineman, the highest-paid tight end, and probably the highest-paid cornerback in the NIL market. After the national championship, there were guys that exploded. You look at that and see that’s pretty substantial. We have depth in our NIL market. The unfortunate thing about NIL is you hear all the negative and the negative out-weights the positive in the media”
Couldn’t be from Dawg Post.
NIL is the future of college football. If you don’t adapt and embrace it, looking at you Dabo Swinney, you’re going to get left behind.
In Athens, there’s a lot of good coming from NIL, and Smart gave examples of a couple players who are using NIL to help with their own education and to help back home.
“We had a guy like Dan Jackson who is not on scholarship use NIL to pay for his college education and help himself out. We have another guy in Micah Morris who had an ill father and he was able to send money back to his dad.”
It isn’t just star players getting NIL money, either. When you win a national championship, everyone gets rewarded. Smart was happy to inform everyone that through their partnership with the Classic City Collective, 95 NIL deals have come through Athens.
“I would rival anyone in the country with 95 NIL deals coming off a national championship” Smart added. “I just don’t think it’s about marketing and selling that. I would rather talk about the depth of out deals than the total amount.”
The depth is certainly there. If you play for the Bulldogs, you have a great opportunity to earn NIL. The national championship head coach did say their might need to be regulations, and he doesn’t want the value of some deals to end up ruining the game, but depth of NIL at Georgia should be recognized.
Whether it’s on the field or in the NIL market, the Georgia Bulldogs just don’t lose.
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