Kirby Smart Shares Ominous NIL Warning

Kirby Smart believes recruits are more focused on NIL than making the NFL.

There's been plenty of warnings about the state of college football, and former Alabama coach Nick Saban seems to be spearheading the effort to tap the brakes on the current system.

What was supposed to be about players making money off autographs and marketing deals has turned into the wild west.

You can now add Kirby Smart to the list of people who think priorities might not be in order.

Kirby Smart weighs in on state of NIL and college football.

In fact, he thinks young recruits are more focused on NIL when they should be focused on making the NFL.

"It’s a great sell to the kids that will listen to it. There is a lot of them that want to ask about NIL. They don’t want to ask about what your NFL players have done. I think it’s much more important how you develop players than how much NIL you can give them," Smart explained when talking about the current state of NIL, according to On3.com.

Kirby Smart shares ominous NIL warning. (Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images)

Sound familiar? It's not as extreme as what Nick Saban, but it's in a similar vein. Smart and Saban appear to be on very similar pages.

The former Alabama coach stated during an NIL roundtable, "Well, all the things I believed in for all these years - 50 years of coaching - no longer exist in college athletics. So, it was always about developing players. It was always about helping people be more successful in life."

The college football world he loved for decades is gone in his mind, and Kirby Smart thinks recruits are stepping over bigger money to pick up pennies.

Yes, earning an NIL paycheck is nice, but you know what's even better? Million in guaranteed cash from an NFL team.

Kirby Smart believes players should be more focused on the NFL over NIL. (Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images)

However, the new era is here and it's not going away. Let me know if you agree at David.Hookstead@outkick.com.