Kirby Smart gives incredible answer on realignment impact on college football overall

College football has recently gone through a series of rapid changes, including NIL, the transfer portal, conference realignment, and College Football Playoff expansion. More than ever before, it seems important to be a ‘have’ in the sport, rather than a ‘have-not.’ Georgia, coached by Kirby Smart is an obvious ‘have’ in the sport, while FCS schools are a clear example of a ‘have-not.’

While speaking to the media, Kirby Smart was asked about playing FCS teams moving forward. In particular, in the context of conference realignment and changes to the scheduling model within conference play.

“Yeah, I think it depends on where it goes,” Kirby Smart said. “What they require you to do and where the FCS, some of those, conferences end up with realignment and some of the things.”

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Kirby Smart knows that FBS games against FCS schools are incredibly important for the survival of those programs. The money paid to them is equal to major portions of those programs’ operating budgets. Florida A&M played their game at North Carolina with more than 20 players unavailable. They did so in large part because the program needed the $450,000 payout. The school’s budget for all sports, not just football, is about $9.5 million annually.

“It’s going to depend a lot on what you talked about, the scheduling model of how many conference games you’re playing. I do know that it’s critical for these programs to be able to survive.”

These games aren’t just important for FCS programs, though. As Kirby Smart points out, these games matter for FBS programs too. That’s because it helps keep these programs healthy. In turn, this helps keep FBS programs and the sport as a whole healthy.

“And look, high schools are our feeder programs just like we are for the NFL. And, if you’re going to have good high school programs, you’ve got to have kids getting opportunities to play at all levels because there’s a lot more kids playing at a non-Power Five level than at the Power Five level. So, if your supplier of talent and the growth of the game comes from your youth sports and your high school sports, you’re going to diminish that as these programs fade away and some of these programs cannot–cannot–survive without these games.”

“That doesn’t mean that I embrace and love them. It just means that their programs can’t survive without these kinds of funding–without these games,” Kirby Smart concluded.

Georgia plays Samford on September 10th. Reportedly, the Samford football program is run for under $6 million a year. Kirby Smart recently earned a decade-long extension that will pay him $112.5 million before bonuses. Georgia has an athletics budget of $162.3 million.