Asked about Name, Image and Likeness legislation passed last month by Missouri’s state government, Georgia coach Kirby Smart said “the level playing field is not exactly there.”
It was part of Smart’s response to a question about the Missouri measure aimed to make the Show Me State more proactive in the ever-expanding, still-undefined NIL marketplace.
The bill, touted by the University of Missouri’s president, Mun Choi, legislators and Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz, among others, paved the way for a more cooperative approach from NCAA coaches within the state and also promised the ability for in-state student-athletes to receive NIL opportunities once they had signed with their respective schools. Known as HB417, it was projected that the bill enabled pertinent parties to help “create, facilitate, negotiate and support” NIL.
Smart called it “a really complicated subject.”
“There’s a lot of things that maybe get affected through the ripple effect going on, not just in Missouri but in certain others,” Smart said. “I think the deal with college football now, the level playing field is not exactly there. Some would say it’s never been.
“Maybe all states should be trying to do it. It’s not for me to decide, really. I think we have great leadership at the SEC level and others that have to help make those decisions. It’s not something, really, I overly concern myself with right now. It’s not had a huge impact [as of this time]. It could. …
“There’s not a lot of lead time between that signing date and enrollment or getting accepted and the actual start time for kids.”
Drinkwitz, who quickly shifted focus onto the Tigers, who open their season Thursday night at home against South Dakota, praised Missouri legislators for actions that he said were enacted to take care of the state’s citizens.
“I can’t predict the future on what other states gonna do. I can just comment on what our state legislature did, which was in the best interest of the state of Missouri,” Drinkwitz said.
The top Tiger also said any discussion of “competitive advantages” should be met with a critical caveat: what determines a competitive advantage in an NIL system presently devoid of guardrails.
“If we’re gonna talk about competitive advantages, I don’t think that anybody’s budgets are standardized or uniform,” said Drinkwitz, who led Missouri to a bowl game last season and earned a contract extension. “I don’t think any NIL or anything is standardized or uniform across the league. So, until there’s a uniform rule or standard rule in place, then every institution or state is privileged to do what they believe is in the best interest of their student-athletes and their citizens. And our governor and state legislators did what they feel like is in the best interest of (their) states and residents of their states. I can’t fault them for that, and there’s a lot of misnomers about our state law. Just because the reality of it is Twitter and message boards don’t always operate with facts.
“I think further research would indicate I think we’re doing things that are really good for student-athletes and residents of this state, which is what ultimately our elected officials are supposed to do.”
Adopted over the course of this summer, Missouri HB417 officially went into effect Monday.