Kirby Smart reaffirms stance on SEC breaking away from the NCAA
By Ethan Stone
Published:
On Monday during Day 1 of SEC Media Days, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey addressed the pool of reporters and acknowledged that talks surrounding the SEC’s potential departure from the NCAA are not just noise. The discussions are real.
Some coaches in the SEC are frustrated with the current landscape of college football, a chaotic and largely lawless environment that the NCAA struggles to do much about with threats of litigation and more hurdles. The SEC, on the other hand, is a multi-billion-dollar powerhouse in college football, perfectly capable of self-sustainment in some eyes.
Such as Georgia head coach Kirby Smart.
According to On3Sports’ Brett McMurphy, Smart was asked Tuesday morning about Sankey’s comments from Monday. He replied with, “Yeah, I’ve actually been there for a long time,” reaffirming comments he made in May when he insisted that he would support a potential exit from the NCAA.
Here’s what Smart said in May at the SEC Spring Meetings:
“I’ve been a huge advocate that if we can’t find rules that everybody plays by, then we should play our own,” Smart said. “I’m not afraid of that. I’m not afraid to break away and say that our conference is strong enough.”
The Protect College Sports Act is a potential way to find rules that everybody plays by, as Smart put it in May. The proposed legislation is in discussions, which recently included the introduction of a 19-team cap and 5-year independent requirement for teams switching power leagues. It’s certainly a step in the right direction, but only time will tell if it can be agreed on by powers such as the Big Ten and SEC.
Ethan Stone is a Tennessee graduate and loves all things college football and college basketball. Firm believer in fouling while up 3.
