Kirby Smart sends veiled threat to college football about SEC ‘breakaway’

The changes in college football are causing uncomfortable conversations, and Georgia coach Kirby Smart just stoked the flames. The college football world is reckoning with the NCAA’s desire to regulate the sport, and Smart signaled that he wasn’t against a future where Georgia broke away and started to self-govern its own athletics programs.

“I’ve said this for a long time to our president, I’ve been a huge advocate that if we can’t find rules that everybody plays by, then we should play on our own,” Smart said, per a quote obtained by On3. “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…If we could actually function financially, it would make our programs more stable. We could support things financially. I’m talking about all the sports and do our own rules – I’d be all for that.”

Smart’s comments are particularly interesting as Iowa State Athletic Director Jamie Pollard levied harsh criticisms against the Big Ten and the SEC. Pollard believed that both Power Conferences aren’t “adhering to the College Sports Commission”, which was created in 2025 after the House v. NCAA settlement.

Pollard was blunt, showcasing a desire for both conferences to leave the NCAA if they don’t follow the rules.

“The four commissioners spent a lot of money creating the CSC,” he said to reporters. “Then to have two of the conferences not want to adhere to it is perplexing to me, because then, why did we spend the money? If you didn’t want rules, then why did you create this entity? That’s what’s frustrating to me, the same people that say they want rules only want rules if they don’t apply to them… I said it three years ago, let em break away. I would turn it around and say we should break away from them.

He added, “The four commissioners spent a lot of money creating the CSC. Then to have two of the conferences not want to adhere to it is perplexing to me, because then, why did we spend the money? If you didn’t want rules, then why did you create this entity? That’s what’s frustrating to me, the same people that say they want rules only want rules if they don’t apply to them… I said it three years ago, let em break away. I would turn it around and say we should break away from them.”

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