Kirby Smart supports SEC leaving NCAA if there aren't major changes: 'I'm not afraid to break away'
As with everything else in the world of modern college football, there's debate and disagreement over how to handle NIL and other major issues around the sport.
There's the hope for more structure and consistent rules around things like roster limits, construction, spending, oversight and enforcement. The NCAA, weakened over time, has become an almost cosmetic body that primarily impacts individual player waivers.
There continues to be hope for national legislation to create some guardrails around college football. But with the difficulties in getting things done in D.C. and the compressed timeframe before the season starts, there's very little likelihood of new rules coming into effect soon. Which raises the question, what to do next?
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Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart has his opinion, and it's a surprising one: let the SEC break away and govern itself.
"I’ve said this for a long time to our president, I’ve been a huge advocate that if we can’t find rules that everybody plays by, then we should play on our own," Smart said to reporters at SEC spring meetings in Florida this week. "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 financially, it would make our programs more stable. We could support things financially. I’m talking about all the sports and do our own rules – I’d be all for that."
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has said something similar, explaining that there's "frustration" about the lack of clarity moving forward.
"The fact that we’re talking about our own rules isn’t anything new," Sankey said earlier this week. "What you’re hearing is the expression of frustration about the lack of progress, and I’ll go back to March 6. I was in the White House, and I spoke about the need for national standards. We still believe we need national standards. If those can’t be achieved, then we’ll have to look at more conference-led regulation, but that’s the reality we’re facing."
Could this actually happen? Well, one Big 12 athletic director seemed to think it's not too far fetched, even saying he'd be fine with the Big Ten and SEC breaking away. Kirk Herbstreit, a prominent voice within the sport, also said he'd support the Power Four leaving the NCAA.
When this many big voices are saying the same thing, suddenly it becomes a lot more likely. As hard as it may be to believe, the NCAA's governance of college football might not be long for this world.