“It's really unfortunate”: $50M worth Kirby Smart gets candid on the impact of NIL and transfer portal on CFB

Head coach Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs have one of the top college football programs in the SEC. However, that does not mean that they have been immune to losing players to the transfer portal because of other teams offering larger NIL deals.

NIL was introduced in 2021 and had a profound impact on college sports. It allows players to get paid, but it also causes players to move teams more often through the transfer portal. These days, top college football players are signing multi-million-dollar NIL contracts.

On Wednesday, Kirby Smart, who is worth $50 million per Celebrity Net Worth, spoke about the impact of NIL and the transfer portal. He spoke about how he is worried that the increase in NIL contract sizes could lead to some sports being cut from some schools. This was asked after the ruling that college teams have a hard count 105-player roster limit.

"What I do know is we're gonna continue to recruit people who love football, who are passionate about football, that don't put money as the number one answer," Smart said. "Like, I've never met a really good player that that's all they care about. 105 number, the NIL number, what's the cap number, what going on right now in college football. I mean there's people reaching out to do a zoom call that are on team's including our teams."

"All we're trying to do is make for competitive balance. 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 in the model that we currently have, if they win long term. Long term when we have to cut sports and other things, are the kids going to be the winners in this? I don't know."

The transfer portal opens again for Kirby Smart and other college football teams

Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs have dealt with several players leaving through the transfer portal this offseason. Most notably, QB Carson Beck left the team to join the Miami Hurricanes during the winter window. However, the spring window is now coming up and will run from April 16-26.

As things stand, the Georgia Bulldogs do not have any new players who have declared for the spring window. However, with a few weeks still to pass before the window opens, that could change. Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs will also look to make additions in the spring window.