Georgia coach Kirby Smart says the SEC could leave the NCAA if rules on playoff expansion and NIL can’t be made to apply fairly—echoing Georgia president Jere Morehead, who called college football “anarchy” and said a split could be financially attractive.
Kirby Smart didn’t soften the language as he talked through the mess college football is living in right now. The Georgia coach framed it as a simple question of control: if the sport can’t agree on rules that everyone can live with, then why keep playing by someone else’s standards.
Smart said Tuesday that he’s urged Georgia’s president to consider what happens if the NCAA can’t produce a workable path forward. “I’ve said this for a long time to our president,” Smart said. “I’ve been a huge advocate that if we can’t find rules that everybody plays by. then we should play our own. 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.”.
The comments landed in a moment when the sport’s internal tensions are boiling over. with Georgia president Jere Morehead describing the situation in college football as “anarchy.” Morehead also signaled openness to the kind of scenario Smart just described. telling The Athletic last week. “I think that would be fantastic. … I can’t imagine the ratings if that happened. Georgia-Alabama SEC championship last year had ratings through the roof. Imagine if that had been for the national championship?. I think our fanbase is strong across the country. I think we’d have tremendous interest in a situation of that nature. But, again, I’m going to be listening to the commissioner.”.
Smart, for his part, said the appeal isn’t just theoretical. “I mean. if we could actually function. and it financially would make our programs more stable and we could support things financially — I’m talking about all the sports — and do by our own rules. I’d be all for that. ” he said. He added that the frustration has built through repeated meetings where the same obstacles keep coming back: “I mean. I’ve been to this meeting now 10. 11 times. and it’s frustrating at times to say. ‘Well. we can’t do this because of litigation. we can’t do this because of litigation. we can’t do that because we’ll get sued. we can’t do that.’”.
The pressure points Smart referenced aren’t hard to find. His comments pointed directly to ongoing issues tied to playoff expansion and NIL. which he argues have left college football unable to settle on rules that everyone plays by. The point underneath his argument is stark: even if the NCAA has been unable to enforce its authority effectively. the laws that have largely left it “toothless” would still apply to the SEC’s schools. Conference-wide rules could also potentially be viewed as antitrust violations.
All of it sits against a looming question—what happens when the governing structure can’t rein in the forces pulling the biggest brands in opposite directions. If the NCAA can’t control the sport, those programs that bring the most money may decide they can’t afford to wait.
And for Georgia, the debate isn’t confined to long-range hypotheticals. Smart’s suggestion arrives right alongside Morehead’s willingness to entertain a break—paired with an insistence that Georgia is listening to the commissioner while the sport’s power struggle grows louder.
Kirby Smart SEC NCAA Georgia Bulldogs Jere Morehead NIL playoff expansion antitrust college football college football civil war