UGA president Jere Morehead on NIL, AD Josh Brooks on fundraising in era of collectives

Money is now flowing to college athletes after getting paid for their name, image and likeness became a reality last summer.

Boosters are donating to collectives to spread the wealth to players at their favorite school and attract others out of the transfer portal.

 “It’s crazy times in our profession right now obviously with the portal, with NIL,” new Georgia men’s basketball coach Mike White told the Georgia athletic board on Thursday at its end of academic year meeting. “There can be a lot of woe is me with what’s going on with the landscape of this and that.”

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More traditional fundraising still goes on. Georgia this summer is launching a $300 million capital campaign over the next five years that it says will fund “people, places and programs,” which means not only facility upgrades but such things as mental health services.

Georgia’s own collective—Classic City Collective—could compete for fans’ dollars.

“There's a lot of people that want to support our athletic programs and university,” athletic director Josh Brooks said. “That support is still strong, but obviously that pace at which we raise will determine the pace at which we build.”

NIL’s impact in college football has been front and center in the leadup to the SEC meetings starting Tuesday in Destin, Fla.

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Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin weighed in to SI.com in a story published Wednesday.  

“We’re a professional sport,” Kiffin said, “and they are professional players. Contracted employees without contracts. They can get out whenever they want. And how is it not being seen that, unless there are changes of rules around caps and contracts, how is every elite college player not at the end of their season [entering the portal]?

Georgia just held a dedication last week for its snazzy new $80 million football operations center, but Kiffin said recruits aren’t being wooed by those bells and whistles as much anymore with NIL.

“It’s totally changed recruiting,” Kiffin said. “I joke all the time about it. Facilities and all that. Go ahead and build facilities and these great weight rooms and training rooms, but you ain’t gonna have any good players in them if you don’t have NIL money. I don’t care who the coach is or how hard you recruit, that is not going to win over money.”

Georgia president Jere Morehead is the chair of the NCAA’s Division I Board of Directors which this month which took aim at collectives who set up NIL deals for recruits as well as players currently on a team’s roster.

“I think NIL has evolved in a way that was not intended,” Morehead said Thursday. “It was intended to reward student-athletes for their name, image and likeness, as student-athletes enrolled at college institutions. It’s clearly become something different than what it was intended. I believe we’ve got to have some very clear rules that do not lead to the professionalism of college athletics.”

Morehead said the board put out a “strong statement” for the enforcement staff to pursue those using NIL to recruit for “some of the cases that have gained a lot of national attention.”

He added: “I believe in the long term that we’re going to have to have a more formalized process whether that comes from Congress, or can come from the actions of the NCAA, We clearly need a strong framework that governs the conduct that every institution engages in when it comes to NIL. How we get there, and when we get there, is an open question. …I think we have to make sure that guardrails do exist, that it doesn’t become a situation where student-athletes are making choices based upon the highest bidder in choosing colleges

Morehead spoke outside a meeting room at the swanky Ritz-Carlton Lodge at Reynolds Lake Oconee in Greensboro where the Georgia athletic board had a three-day gathering including two days of meetings and typically holds meetings every two years.

Attendees were offered UGA national championship golf balls.

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The board Friday morning was set to pass a fiscal year 2023 budget with projected revenues of about $162 million, up from $150.3 million.

Morehead said coach Kirby Smart and Georgia are finalizing a new deal. It is expected to bring his salary up in the $9 to $10 million a year range.

“It’s just going through the process, taking your time,” Brooks said. “This is an important contract for him and for us. It’s just all little details. It’s just typical stuff. Nothing out of the ordinary.”

Smart’s new deal will follow offensive coordinator Todd Monken’s salary jumping to $2 million a year, which the school disclosed later in the day.

Players are getting a small share as well from the school with new Alston payments of $5,980 a year for each. Georgia athletes got an academic award of $2,990 in March for the spring semester.

The athletic board approved funding for $68.5 million for enhancements in Sanford Stadium including widening the southside concourse and $26.7 million for a new six-court indoor tennis facility that will be ready in time for the 2024 SEC women’s tournament and, it is hoped, will attract more NCAA championships.

Georgia’s capacity for home football games is expected to have its first change since it grew from 92,058 to 92,746 in 2004 after 688 new seats were added in the north side skysuite level.

The latest project, which includes new premium seating, will be completed in two phases and is slated to be completed for the 2024 season. Senior associate athletic director Matt Brachowski said he expected Sanford Stadium capacity to increase by a few hundred.