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Georgia's Kirby Smart an advocate of SEC 'playing under own rules'

Jeremy Johnsonby: Jeremy Johnson05/27/26JeremyO_Johnson

Georgia athletics appear to be in lockstep when it comes to their preferences for what rules the SEC should play by when it comes to college athletics as a whole.

Since the introduction of NIL, the transfer portal and now revenue sharing, things around the country have operated however the participants have wanted them to.

The SCORE Act has been the olive branch in the sky that college conferences have been waiting on to begin to lay the foundation of how things are supposed to operate. That bill would establish national standards for NIL and grant the NCAA limited antitrust protections to enforce its own rules on transfers and athlete compensation.

As of today, that bill has not been passed. So, the SEC is considering making its own set of rules. Georgia President Jere Morehead hinted as much last week and the Georgia Athletic Association’s spring Board of Directors’ meeting.

If we don’t get federal legislation, in my opinion, we’re going to have to do this conference by conference.” Morehead said last week. “Because we can’t allow the Wild West to continue any longer. So, I’m prepared next week in Destin to be ready to vote on creating an SEC mechanism and SEC rules. That’s what we have to do.”

Kirby Smart has a similar take

Georgia head football coach Kirby Smart extended his support to ending the ‘Wild West’ approach to today’s college athletics on Tuesday.

Smart spoke to the media during the SEC Meetings in Destin and had a similar stance.

“I’ve said this for a long time to our president,” Smart said on Tuesday. “I’ve been a huge advocate that if we can’t find rules that everybody plays by, then we should play our own. I’m not afraid of that. I’m not afraid to break away and say that our conference is strong enough to go out and play. If we could actually function, and it financially would make our programs more stable and we could support things financially, I’m talking about all the sports and do it by our own rules, I’d be all for that. 

“I’ve been to this meeting now 10, 11 times,” Smart continued. “It’s frustrating at times to say, well, we can’t do this because of litigation. We can’t do this because of litigation. Or, we can’t do this because we’ll get sued. We can’t do that. And we’re just trying to do things for the betterment of the sport and the betterment of the student-athletes.”

The introduction of rules and guidelines isn’t Smart’s way of trying to slow the financial gains of the student athletes. Smart is also an advocate of that.

“That’s not curtailing what money they make,” Smart said. “I’m not advocating that they make less money. I’m fine with what student-athletes make. Its about trying to make it where it’s an equal and it’s a comparable footing for everybody, and it’s not a race to the bottom, as they say.”

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