Kirby Smart issues strong warning about House settlement, calls out tampering problems

Next week, Judge Claudia Wilken will hear arguments regarding the landmark House v. NCAA settlement. The hearing could transform the college sports landscape with roster limits and revenue-sharing with a $20.5 million cap.

April 7 has long been circled as a potentially transformative day. However, Georgia coach Kirby Smart issued a strong warning about the settlement’s impact – and he cited current tampering issues as a reason for his argument.

Smart noted the current state of the college basketball transfer portal window with names entering and dollars flying. When it comes to college football, he called on people to take a “deep breath” because of the amount of unknowns with the House settlement. But Smart doesn’t plan on changing his approach to recruiting.

“I think everybody’s got to take a big pause right now and say, ‘Deep breath,’ because what’s going on in basketball right now is crazy,” Smart told reporters Tuesday. “We don’t know everything that’s going to come out with April 7 – which might be April 7, might be the settlement date where we get a lot more information. But everybody’s on pins and needles because we don’t know exactly what’s going to come out of this.

“What I do know is we’re going to continue to recruit people who love football, who are passionate about football and don’t put money as the No. 1 answer. Like, I’ve never met a really good player that that’s all they care about. The 105 number, the NIL number, ‘What’s the cap number? What is this going to be?'”

The first college football transfer window opened after the final College Football Playoff rankings reveal in December. But the second one opens for one week in the spring – April 16-25. Ahead of that span, Smart said some are already shopping around.

“There’s stuff going on right now, guys, in college football – there’s people reaching out to have a Zoom call and present all the players they represent that are on teams, including our teams,” Smart said. “And they want to invite people to the Zooms so they can watch and see who’s going in the portal or shopping who’s in the portal before the portal. ‘Do you want to get on a Zoom and look at all these players?’ What if some of them are mine?”

Kirby Smart: ‘I don’t know if the kids win in this model’

Under the House v. NCAA settlement, schools will be able to directly share $20.5 million with athletes next year. That number will increase by 4% each year afterward as part of the 10-year settlement agreement.

Georgia previously announced its plan for revenue-sharing. UGA will put 75% of that $20.5 million toward football, with 15% to men’s basketball, 5% to women’s basketball and 5% to all other sports.

But Kirby Smart is still concerned about competitive balance moving forward and whether schools can “manipulate” the cap in place. He also had concerns about whether schools will need to cut sports – which SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has said is, “not what we want” – and whether in the long run, the landscape will end up settling.

“It could be one of the most legendary moments in all of college sports with what’s coming up on this ruling and how people are going to try to manipulate a cap when all we’re trying to do is make for competitive balance,” Smart said. “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 win in this model that we currently have, if they win long-term.

“Like, long-term, when we have to cut sports and cut other things, are the kids going to be the winners of this? I don’t know. College sports [have] been around for a long time and given many an opportunity, and by all means I want these kids to make money. But what’s going on right now is not good for anybody.”

‘You’ve got two dates you’re operating off of’

As Georgia goes through spring practice, Kirby Smart noted the two landmark dates coming up this month. The first is Monday when the hearing begins at 10 a.m. PT in California. The second is the day the transfer portal re-opens.

In the meantime, he noted the dollars flowing in on the basketball side while the portal is open. With April 7 coming up and a revenue-sharing cap on the horizon, Smart sees programs trying to “beat” that date. But he noted a “correction” could also be on the way once things settle.

” The biggest thing going on is you’ve got two dates you’re operating off of – there’s a portal date, there’s a House settlement date,” Smart said. “There’s a lot of people doing, they’re not illegal things. They’re just manipulative money things to try to, ‘move this, move that so I can free up this.’ What’s going to happen, there’s probably going to be a bubble or a spike. Agents are literally trying to take advantage of that every minute they can. They want to get all they can for their client. But at the end of the day, it may backfire because there’s going to be a correction in the market at some point when this cap hits – if the cap is truly what the House settlement wants it to be. If there’s truly a cap, if you just keep trying to frontload and pay out people.

“What’s going on in basketball now and football now, people are trying to beat a date. Then, what’s going to happen when those people expect the same money the next year and it’s not there because you’re in a cap? There’s going to be a correction eventually. I don’t think any of us know what’s going to happen.”