Kirby Smart of Georgia and the SEC football coaches have an agreement that includes players’ financial expectations.

During a 15-minute press conference on Tuesday, May 28, 2024, during the SEC Spring Meetings at the Sandestin Hilton Beach and Resort in Miramar Beach, Florida, Georgia coach Kirby Smart, known for his reserved demeanor, answers a question from a reporter. Chip Towers/ctowers@ajc.com provided the photo.
By Chip Towers fifty minutes ago
Florida’s Miramar Beach — Paying athletes to play football for your school dates back many years, almost to the beginning of collegiate athletics. However, that had always been confidential.

Thus far. It has been over a century before the real numbers were revealed. And even now, when the conference programs of the Power Five and the SEC start to address the realities of lawsuit settlements and future revenue-sharing models, it is difficult to distinguish what is fact from fiction or pure conjecture.

However, the reality is beginning to clear up gradually. Athletes are getting paid actual money by schools to play basketball for old State University. As it is, potential clients are guaranteed a specific income through agreements including their name, likeness, and image through their individual collective organizations. However, they might actually be playing for money soon due to successful legal actions brought against the NCAA and its power-conference membership.

In an attempt to understand the implications of the recent settlement for his football team and the other SEC programs, Georgia coach Kirby Smart arrived at the Hilton Sandestin Beach Resort on Tuesday in order to take part in the annual SEC Spring Meetings. But for the past two years, he has also served as the Bulldogs’ de facto general manager, managing the money allocation between the team’s two dozen walk-on players and 85 scholarship players.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution questioned Smart on Tuesday about the percentage of his typical effort that goes toward player compensation.

“Probably ten percent,” Smart remarked as he made his way from the hotel lobby to a section of conference rooms where he would be meeting with the other fifteen football head coaches in the SEC for the whole afternoon. Three years ago, it was zero, and now it is at this point. However, we currently have a ton of other problems to deal with. Contrary to popular belief, we don’t deal with compensation all that much. When they arrive, they go on their way, and I stop having to deal with it.

SEC coaches are handling tens of millions of dollars if the figures mentioned in a lawsuit involving one of these quarterbacks are accurate. Recently transferred from Arizona State to UGA, Jaden Rashada is suing Florida and coach Billy Napier for damages totaling $10 million.