Kirby Smart addresses Georgia's NIL strategy, idea of 'hometown discount' in recruiting

When Georgia made its run to back-to-back national championships, NIL was in its early stages in college athletics. At the time, Kirby Smart recalled a “hometown discount” of sorts given the Bulldogs’ success both on the field and in the NFL Draft.

Of course, recruiting continues to change along with the NIL and, now, rev-share eras. When it comes to that “discount,” Smart said it comes down to finding value, but he acknowledged Georgia isn’t afraid of spending when necessary.

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During a conversation with Josh Pate, Smart said he hears the chatter about Georgia getting players to commit without necessarily offering the top dollar. There’s also a balance during the recruiting process to make sure UGA spends its money in the right places.

“I would like to believe that. And I hear people say that,” Smart said. “We used to, our coaches after the first two national championships and NIL was just in its infancy, I would say there was this ‘hometown discount’ or this, UGA-I’m-going-to-get-NFL-status discount. I think people take offense to that when you’re talking to the agent or the recruiting world. They want a value for their son, they want a value for their representative … and they’re not looking for that. Well, we spend money. People come all the time – we’re probably fourth or fifth in the SEC in spending money.

“We want to find the best value, along with the best kid. Sometimes, in our state, there’s a player that’s ‘X’ and the player over here is demanding ‘X,’ and the players aren’t that far apart. But they’re that far apart in money that we choose to say, ‘You know what? He knows who he is. He knows what he wants and he’s going to develop well.’ And we think he’s an undervalued player because he’s been on our campus four times. He’s from Atlanta, Georgia, and we’re going to bring him over here and I’m not going to go out and play some crazy premium on a risk. Because at the end of the day, every player we bring in here is a risk. It’s an investment. We’re putting a lot of money, a lot of the university’s money, into these kids. I want a more solid investment.”

Kirby Smart: ‘We’re going to find the right people’

During conversations with recruits and their reps, Kirby Smart walked through how the Georgia staff evaluates them both on and off the field. While some prospects ask for different dollar amounts, there might not be a big talent difference between the two.

That’s where Smart pointed to on-field development, which could lead to a bigger payday down the road. Georgia’s approach is not to pay its younger players the most, but instead reward its older players as they improve.

“It’s hard to say the difference in these kids is $200,000, $400,000,” Smart said. “But if you ask mom, dad and the agent, it’s, ‘How do you value my son?’ It’s not about value, for me, for your son. It’s about, we’re going to pour into him. We’re going to put so much into him. So much effort, energy, toughness, practice, development, all the things they want. Off-the-field education, for-life education. That’s what I want you to see you’re getting a value on. And I don’t want you to have to take a discount. A discount might be a little less [in] year one or two. We have traditionally paid our players junior and senior year as much as anybody, at those positions. We don’t on the start because I want you to earn it and work your way up.

“People hear that all the time in recruiting. They want to use it as a negative to us. And I just let it go and say, ‘Look, we’re going to find the right people.’ We only need to find 25. We only need to find 22. And there’s thousands of good enough out there. Like, the difference in the top 1,000 players, we just need to find 22 that want to be here.”