The former Alabama Crimson Tide head coach, Nick Saban, is called the GOAT for a reason. After all, the 73-year-old has been a college football head coach for a total of 28 seasons and comes off as a veteran with a 292-71-1 record. In Tuscaloosa itself, he has coached for 16 seasons, from 2007 to 2023. No doubt, it’s called the golden era because he led Alabama to six national championships. However, the legend has been against NIL ever since the concept came into play in college football. And now, his ex-staffer and present head coach of Georgia Bulldogs – Kirby Smart – is echoing the same. Smart also fears the long-term impact of the NIL. However, the Georgia head coach turns into a hate magnet as fans hold him accountable for turning out late.

Nick Saban asks an interesting question: “Each year, it’s gotten a little worse. Like the first year, we had name, image, and likeness (NIL) four, five years ago, we had $3 million. And everybody was happy. The next year it was $7 (million). The next year it’s $10 (million). And then this year it’s $13 (million). Now we’re looking at $20 (million). Where does it end?” Maybe it’ll increase again next year. Even his wife, Terry Saban, highlighted how earlier it was all about relationships, and now it’s about how much money you are going to pay them. Even though Saban has let go of his head coaching role, his fight to change the NIL structure is yet to end. 

The GOAT has been working with Republicans in Congress to clamp down on those rules ever since he left his post at the University of Alabama. Now that the 47th President, Donald Trump, who was in Tuscaloosa for Alabama’s special day, is likely to help Saban by making sensible changes. As per the reports, the NCAA has dropped a cool $250,000 to lobbyists to seize control of NIL. Looks like the fear here is infectious. Now, it’s the Georgia head coach Smart who addressed the chaotic state of the NIL space in college athletics. He, too, now fights to create a sustainable model. The changes were based on the potential for Congress to enact legislation and create guidelines. On May 15, On3 NIL made an IG post about what Kirby Smart feels about the present times.

He apparently has no issues with the term ‘pay for play’, unlike Saban. Neither does Smart discourage the structure that is stable enough to compensate the players for their plays. However, Smart is concerned about the long run and is not just thinking about football. As the future of non-revenue sports could be impacted by the increasing demands on the NIL front. Smart thus shared, “I just want to be able to have a freshman come in and not make more than a senior and I’d like for other sports to be able to still survive. You know, we’re on the brink of probably one to two years away from a lot of schools cutting sports.”

As per the reports, the Bulldogs have a $20.5 million share in hand from the House vs. NCAA antitrust settlement. Now that it took Smart so long to realize the drawbacks of NIL, he caught side eyes from the fans. 

Fans call out Kirby Smart’s double standards

Smart has coached under Saban for 11 seasons as an assistant coach. Drawing his head coaching experience from the legend, Smart led Georgia to two national championships. While the college football fans expected him to support his mentor last year when Saban addressed the elephant in the room, he did not take a stand. The GOAT did not just talk big, he acted upon it, too. Finding issues with the NIL structure, Saban had let go of his head coaching job that helped him earn $11 million. On this note, a fan commented: “So lead by example and take a pay cut🤷‍♂️” – as he now receives a much smaller salary in his part-time advisory role, around $500,000. A sharp 95% reduction in pay. 

On the other hand, Kirby Smart’s new 10-year contract with Georgia is worth $130 million, and this drew him some flak from the internet. “Says the dude who’s flying around private jets making 12 mill a year 😂 if you feel so bad throw in some of your salary,” a comment read, as his contract includes access to a private jet for personal use – which covers a maximum of 25 hours of flight time per year on a light jet. 

Going by On3’s 2025 Industry Ranking football Team Recruiting Rankings, Georgia holds the second rank. Smart has hunted down four 5-stars, nineteen 4-star players. That’s how they made the most of their NIL fund. Thus, a fan tried to expose them, “Noh y’all just want all the 5 stars and top recruits to y’all selfs😂.” Fans must be wondering what happened to Smart to go against NIL all of a sudden. Turns out that it’s the pain of losing out on their No.1 recruit Jackson Cantwell. Miami lured him away with a $2 million NIL deal. A fan noted, “Kirby’s crying cause he got the number 1 recruit stolen.”

We are all aware of Georgia’s initiative to distribute the $20.5 million share from the House vs. NCAA settlement. Out of which $13.5 million is allocated for football. That’s how Smart’s program has always run for extracting the most money for football. So, maybe the head coach’s words do not match with his program’s actions. “Says the school giving 87% of the NIL funds to solely football lol.”

So, is it time for Kirby Smart to phone a friend—namely, the legend Nick Saban—for some NIL clarity?