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Georgia

Kirby Smart highlights importance of financial, emotional education in NIL era

FaceProfileby:Thomas Goldkamp•11/06/24
Kirby Smart, Georgia
Kirby Smart, Georgia - © Brett Davis-Imagn Images

In the age of NIL, there are a lot of potential pitfalls for players and coaches alike. Simply put, there’s a lot to navigate.

For Georgia coach Kirby Smart, making that easier for players is a key priority within the program. There’s simply too much at stake to avoid the simple realities that NIL creates.

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To that end, the Bulldogs have specific programs in place to help players navigate the NIL waters.

“That’s already in. There’s not a program in America that’s worth a dime that doesn’t have that,” Smart said Wednesday on an SEC teleconference call. “I mean we have programming in for players, just like the NFL does. Whether it’s financial education, the pressures of social media, the scrutiny you’re under as a football player related to your NIL. These guys, nobody really understands the pressure these guys are under.”

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Smart, as much as any coach in America, has a roster full of players that command a high NIL value. You don’t get to be as nationally prominent as Georgia is without having a roster that can compete.

And competing these days is easiest accomplished by paying up for a quality roster.

That creates some interesting NIL scenarios for players, and Smart laid things out in pretty simple terms on Wednesday.

“They’re the breadwinner of their family in probably 50-60% of the cases on our team,” he said. “So they’re having to navigate financial situations where they’re sending home money to their parents, supporting their brothers and sisters and doing all kinds of things at 18 and 19. That’s uncharted territory for kids.”

Does that give athletes in the NIL era more responsibilities that in eras past? It’s certainly possible.

Smart’s goal is to lessen the burden on players by providing ample education.

“Yeah, it’s an unintended consequence, but what’s the alternative?” Smart said. “That they don’t support them and they don’t get the money. So there’s definitely pressures there and there’s programming here to try to help them with that.”