Georgia football coach Kirby Smart speaks to reporters on Tuesday April 1, 2025 Marc Weiszer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Georgia Head Coach Reveals Absurd NIL Deals Some Schools are Paying to Recruits

Originally posted on NIL on SI | By Jacob Moss | Last updated May 28, 2025 7:00 PM ET

NIL has once again resurfaced as the primary talking point around college football, this time being brought up by several SEC coaches during their annual spring meetings, currently being held in Miramar Beach, Florida.

Much of the discourse has centered on the proposed new regulations set to take effect on July 1 in the wake of the NCAA vs. House settlement. If approved, these new rules will significantly alter how every program in America can utilize NIL. As such, some coaches have already begun to voice their concerns about the lack of clarity the new framework presents.

One of the main sticking points in this regard is how the brand-new NIL clearinghouse will affect the way programs can pay their athletes through NIL deals, as under the new framework, every NIL offer must be approved by the clearinghouse before it can take effect.

This has the potential to become particularly disastrous for schools who have already agreed to, and signed NIL deals with current high school recruits. Some of these offers are absolutely massive, and could potentially be wiped off the board in a few days time.

Per Yahoo Sports' Ross Dellenger, Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart believes this will cause all sorts of problems for schools, as many programs are already paying upwards of $20,000 a month just to keep their current top high school commits locked up.

Kirby Smart tells @YahooSports that collectives are striking deals with high school recruits to keep and gain their commitments - paying them as much as $20,000 a month in this unregulated market. If they de-commit, they are being asked to return the compensation, he says. https://t.co/o4GZv0MG7d
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) May 28, 2025

“Teams that are unusually good at recruiting right now are doing it. Kids are getting money, but if you decommit, you owe that money back,” Smart said. “These are high school kids getting money from an entity not affiliated with the university but is a collective of the university.”

While this may seem jarring, it has become part of the norm under the current NIL system, a system that has been allowed to run rampant. It's also a practice that could come to an end very soon, as the new proposed clearing house will begin evaluating every current NIL deal on the books of every university three days after the new framework is implemented.

What effect this ultimately ends up having is impossible to predict at this point, but it's safe to assume there will be a ton of chaos. Whether or not this chaos eventually leads to a more sustainable version of college athletics is also far from certain as well.

This article first appeared on NIL on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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