Kirby Smart has been around long enough to know a loaded question when he hears one. Asked by a reporter whether Georgia might stop playing Tennessee — effectively stripping a likely win off the Bulldogs’ schedule — Smart didn’t take the bait.
“You said that, not me.”
Five words. No follow-up. The kind of answer you coach your linebackers to give — fill the gap, don’t overpursue, get off the field. Brett McMurphy of The Action Network shared the exchange on social media, and it made the rounds for its brevity alone. But the scheduling question that Smart batted away is tied to a much larger conversation the Georgia head coach has been having all week — one that goes well beyond who’s on the slate in any given October.
Appearing on ESPN’s Get Up, Smart was asked by host Mike Greenberg whether the current model of college athletics is sustainable. His answer split the question in two the way a good offensive coordinator splits a defense.
“I think when you say the day-to-day operations for coaches, yes, that’s sustainable,” Smart said. “Is it financially sustainable? That’s the question for athletic directors. And I wish that more athletic directors could come out and talk and speak, because sustainability — they look at the bottom-line numbers, and when they look at those, they’re fearful of what this looks like down the road.”
Then Smart named the sports he’s worried about. Not football. Not basketball. He listed women’s tennis, women’s track, men’s swimming and diving — the programs that don’t sell out 90,000-seat stadiums on a Saturday but give dozens of athletes a reason to be on campus.
“Are all those sports going to be able to survive in the model we currently use?” Smart said. “I can’t answer that question. I can tell you the people that look at those books and sit in meetings with us are very concerned for that.”
That concern is playing out against a congressional backdrop. The Protect College Sports Act, a bipartisan bill sponsored by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), is working its way through the Senate with hopes of reaching the floor for a full vote. The SEC, however, does not support the legislation in its current form. Tennessee chancellor Donde Plowman issued a statement Monday acknowledging that the conference backs language addressing transfer rules and eligibility but still wants amendments on antitrust and preemption provisions — the legal framework that would shield universities from the cascade of lawsuits reshaping the landscape.
“We are eager to see refined bill language as time to a vote draws near,” Plowman’s statement read.
The Big Ten has echoed similar reservations. Both conferences are in active negotiations with Cruz and Cantwell’s offices.
For Smart, the message was less about politics than about arithmetic. Football funds the athletic department. Football pays for the swimming pool and the tennis courts and the track. When the revenue model shifts — and it is shifting, fast — the sports that depend on football’s surplus are the ones standing on the thinnest ice.
You don’t need a spreadsheet to see it. You need to walk past the women’s tennis courts on a Tuesday afternoon and count the people who aren’t watching. The film doesn’t lie.
Sources
- Brett McMurphy on X (formerly Twitter)
- Yahoo Sports / On3 — Kirby Smart clarifies question over ‘sustainability’ in college sports