Kirby Smart’s ‘biggest concern’ about future of college football

As college football continues to dominate the conversation surrounding athletic revenue, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart is sounding the alarm on a significant, often overlooked consequence: the future of non-revenue sports.

The Hidden Cost of Revenue Focus

While discussions at the SEC spring meetings in Miramar Beach, Florida, have been anchored by hot-button topics like College Football Playoff expansion, governance, and player compensation, Smart believes the industry's singular focus on football is pushing other sports to the brink. For major programs like Alabama, which currently fields 20 varsity teams beyond football, the financial strain is becoming impossible to ignore.

"My biggest concern for our sport is we’re going to ruin all the other sports," Smart noted during the SEC spring meetings. "People say, ‘That’s just the way it is.’ I don’t agree with that."

Preserving the Student-Athlete Experience

Smart emphasized the unique cultural value that university-sponsored Olympic sports bring to the collegiate experience. He advocates for a system where student-athletes can earn a degree while simultaneously developing as professional athletes.

"We go to class with people who go throw a javelin. We go sit in class with an extra person who swims. Dives," Smart explained. "You learn culture by being with those people. I still think the best thing for a young student is to go get a degree and to train to be a professional while also training to be a professional athlete."

The Sustainability Problem

The core of Smart's concern lies in the rapid, unchecked inflation of player compensation. As budgets are funneled more aggressively toward football, the financial viability of supporting expansive athletic departments is being called into question.

"We’re going to lose that if we keep spending," Smart said, warning that the current trajectory is creating an unsustainable landscape where only a handful of institutions can afford to keep pace.