The spring conference meetings are seeing some interesting takes and lively debates leaping up. Playoff discussions, scheduling issues, the whole shebang of arguments popped up in these meetings. But they were all important issues that govern the current scenario of college football. Amid these weighty discussions, one thing remains constant. Not all programs are endowed with the same resources. Some enjoy a lot of popularity and fanfare, while others struggle to get to make themselves more prominent. Georgia is of the former kind, as Kirby Smart casually boasted about an 8-figure worthy asset of UGA.

The Georgia HC shed some light on the matter of transfer portals. Along with high-school recruiting, they form a cutthroat arena for college football. It dictates the way a particular program will fare in the season. To add to HCs’ woes, there are 2 transfer portals they have to deal with. The winter portal occurs while programs wrap up their season and prepare for the postseason games. Any CFB HC would be frazzled about the situation. Should they look at how to retain players? Or should they focus on how to win their bowl/playoff games? It’s a no-win situation, and Kirby Smart knows it well. He has a first-hand experience of dealing with a major transfer portal blow.

But he says that Georgia, unlike other programs, is still well-suited to deal with its severity. At a presser ahead of the SEC meetings, the HC was asked how he manages the frustrating month of December. Smart coolly replied, “A big staff.” Three short words, but they carry a lot of weight with them. Andy Staples shared the quote in a tweet, adding, “How many of us would LOVE to be able to give that answer?” That was Kirby Smart showcasing the might of UGA Athletics.

After all, the Bulldogs are getting $13.5 million in revenue share–a price enough for Smart to afford, however big a staff system he wants. That’s close to 70% of the total sports fund the university is equipping its athletic department with. Now Smart had to deal with both sides of the coin in the transfer portal, even with his big staff. He lost his trump card, Carson Beck, to Miami in this winter transfer portal. In the spring transfer portal, Georgia made some leaps by recruiting RB Josh McCray, Josh Horton, and Elo Modozie. But no one suffered a bigger transfer portal blow than Smart, at least in the winter portal. The highlight of the spring transfer portal was Tennessee’s Nico Iamaleava.

Smart is one of the many coaches calling for the normalisation of only one portal, slated to take place in early January. “We’re leaning towards that thing being in January, and a little more stability in December. In terms of, let’s sign our high school recruits first. Then let’s figure out in January, where the semester break ends, who’s staying and who’s going,” he told the press. The HC also had some thoughts about the much-debated playoff selection from last year.

Kirby Smart attacks the CFP for being unfair to the SEC

There’s no denying that we’re still in the dark about the full criteria that went into deciding who gets those 12 playoff spots. 2024 was the first time we saw the widened playoff bracket come into play, and people were surprised to see who made it and who didn’t. Kirby Smart threw shade at the CFP Committee, too, like most critics. “There’s no outcry, saying it’s unfair when SEC gets 13 of 16 teams in the basketball tournament by using RPI. I have a hard time thinking Ole Miss, South Carolina & Alabama (who all missed last year’s CFP) were not part of the best teams in the country.”

Greg Sankey also came to the rescue for Ole Miss, who missed out on a playoff spot because it ranked No. 14 in the committee’s final rankings. He said, ahead of the SEC meetings, “It’s clear that not losing becomes in many ways more important than beating the University of Georgia, which two of our teams that were left out did.” The commissioner’s comment implied that the committee did not consider the strength of the schedule. Bottom line is, both Smart and Sankey agree that deserving teams were left out of the playoffs.

In their place, they saw less battle-tested teams like Indiana and SMU make the playoff bracket. The Hoosiers, for example, had a relatively easy schedule. They won over Nebraska and Michigan, sure. But OSU and Notre Dame were able to triumph over the Hoosiers. Both Indiana and SMU had more wins (11) than Ole Miss and Alabama (9), but they were also not part of the toughest conferences in FBS.

College football is slated for more changes in the future, especially when the House vs. NCAA settlement gets a transparent future. Until then, HCs like Smart will continue rooting for and suggesting more methods to level the playing field.