Georgia football coach Kirby Smart is opening up about how he sees the game changing. Smart says there will be more agents involved in lobbying for NIL raises for players.
“There’s definitely more agents involved in the process this year than previous years, and it will continue to grow in terms of representation. But the agents are just doing a job, just like I’m doing a job, just like the parents do a job,” Smart said, per Dawg Nation. “Their job is to protect their client, try to get the best deal or the best situation for their client they can.”
This issue came to a head in recent days, as Tennessee football parted ways with quarterback Nico Iamaleava. Iamaleava held out from Tennessee football activities because he wanted an NIL pay raise. NIL stands for name, image and likeness.
Smart says he is okay with players having agents and trying to negotiate better deals.
“That is a business side of it. I don’t think that’s a bad thing,” Smart added.
The Georgia coach is bemoaning the fact however that there seems to be no guardrails or boundaries on how much players can make. There also is limited transparency on how much schools are able to pay players.
“You don’t have that challenge in the NFL because it’s public knowledge and you know what you’re working off of. Nobody really knows in college football what teams are working off of,” Smart said.
The Bulldogs finished the 2024 season with a loss to Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff.
Georgia football’s coach also has ideas on how to address transfers
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The transfer portal opens on April 16. Georgia is expected to find some guys in the portal, to help the team get back to the CFP in 2025.
The SEC has an interesting transfer rule. A player cannot become immediately eligible if they enter the portal and transfer to another SEC program. This applies only during the spring window.
That is something Smart would like to fix.
“I mean, there’s nobody that loves that rule more than the teams outside the SEC. I mean, they love that rule. But that’s, again, if kids wanna be here, we’re gonna have them here,” Smart said, per Sports Illustrated.
It is likely plenty of players will want to be in Georgia. The Bulldogs are one of the strongest programs in the country under Smart. Georgia football won two national championships in the last five years.
