Georgia's Recent Transfer Portal Entries Show The Price of Championship Contention

The landscape of college football is forever changing; look no further than just how different the world of college athletics as a whole is from the one Kirby Smart entered seven years ago when he was named the head coach at the University of Georgia. Then, compensation for student-athletes was still nothing more than a pipedream; immediate eligibility for non-graduate transfers was not even a thing.

The NCAA Transfer Portal wasn't even invented until 2018, Smart's second year as a head coach.

The first-ever transfer of the Kirby Smart era was none other than former Alabama defensive back Maurice Smith, who ended up transferring to Georgia and gaining immediate eligibility for the 2016 season due to his status as a graduate transfer. Alabama's Nick Saban initially blocked the transfer of Smith to inter-conference foe Georgia before ultimately allowing the transfer to go through along with the "okay" from the SEC.

That was one of the biggest offseason stories in 2016 as Smart began his tenure as Georgia's head coach. Smart and his new Georgia staff did everything they could to bring Smith to Athens, while the Tide tried to stop it initially. Fast forward to the present, the transfer portal is like a version of the NBA's free agency. Players can move from school to school, even if they are in the same conference, without much restriction and almost always gain immediate eligibility as long as they transfer within the proper windows.

As long as offensive tackle Amarius Mims makes his decision before the May 2nd deadline to gain immediate eligibility, he too will be another instance of the new norm in college football.

Mims, a five-star prospect coming out of high school, ranked as the highest recruit in Georgia's 2021 recruiting class according to 247Sports, is entering his name into the transfer portal after just one season in Athens.

The Bleckley County product went to Georgia with all the physical tools to become the next NFL-level offensive tackle and believed that he had a good shot at replacing either Jamaree Salyer at left tackle or Warren McClendon at right tackle if the latter declared early for the NFL Draft.

And suppose it wasn't for the elite-level recruiting of Georgia stockpiling two five-star offensive tackles in two consecutive classes. In that case, Mims could be in the position that Broderick Jones is now regarded as the overwhelming favorite to start at left tackle.

Not long after the news of Mims broke, Georgia lost another former five-star prospect, this time from the 2019 class; interior offensive lineman Clay Webb is entering the portal after not being to break the depth chart after three seasons with the program. Mims and Webb are the tenth and eleventh players to enter the portal this offseason for Georgia, just months removed from winning the program's first national championship in 41 years. They beat Alabama 33-18 in Indianapolis, Indiana, inside Lucas Oil Stadium.

This looks to be a continuous trend for teams in contention for national championships without new rules and regulations. Alabama lost eight players via the portal a year ago after winning the national title in 2020, while LSU had four players leave following their 2019 national championship.

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