Conversations around conference expansion have dominated the college football spring meetings thus far, and Kirby Smart's comments on Tuesday about the SEC essentially seceding have created plenty of questions.
The Georgia coach suggested that if an agreement can't be reached on expansion, spending in the NIL era and beyond, perhaps the SEC should try to go it alone.
"I've said this for a long time to our president," Smart said on Tuesday. "I've been a huge advocate that if we can't find rules that everybody plays by, then we should play our own. I'm not afraid of that. I'm not afraid to break away and say that our conference is strong enough to go out and play.
The argument at front and center is whether to expand the College Football Playoff to 16 or 24 teams from the current 12-team model. For a change to occur, the conferences -- most notably the Big Ten and SEC -- must agree on a format. The Big Ten, ACC, Big 12 and Notre Dame are all on board for expanding to 24. The SEC is against that model at this time.
Smart's comments come after Georgia president Jere Morehead told On3 last week that if federal legislation isn't enacted to curb what he's called "anarchy" in the sport, he's prepared to "be ready to vote on creating an SEC mechanism and SEC rules. That's what we have to do."
The SEC's frustrations also come from lengthy NCAA investigations and other litigation, as well as concerns over NIL spending.
The topic is likely to dominate the remainder of the spring meetings. Morehead told The Athletic last week that he didn't know if it could come to a vote in Destin, Florida, but he expects "robust" discussion, and that he likes the idea -- even though he acknowledged it couldn't happen for another five or so years.
"I think that would be fantastic," Morehead said. "I can't imagine the ratings if that happened. Georgia-Alabama SEC championship last year had ratings through the roof. Imagine if that had been for the national championship? I think our fanbase is strong across the country. I think we'd have tremendous interest in a situation of that nature. But, again, I'm going to be listening to the commissioner."
Smart appears to be in lockstep with Morehead.
"I mean, if we could actually function, and it financially would make our programs more stable and we could support things financially -- I'm talking about all the sports -- and do by our own rules, I'd be all for that," he said. "I mean, I've been to this meeting now 10, 11 times, and it's frustrating at times to say, 'Well, we can't do this because of litigation, We can't do this because of litigation, we can't do this because we'll get sued, we can't do that.'"
Smart says he's not worried about players making money, just the schools spending unreasonable amounts for NIL.
"I'm not advocating that they make less money. I'm fine with what student-athletes make. I'm trying to make it where it's as equal and it's comparable footing for everybody and it's not a race to the bottom, as they say."