Kirby Smart Gives Insight into How Tampering is Unfolding in CFB
"Tampering" is becoming a real problem not only in professional sports like the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Football League (NFL), but now it is even spreading into college sports, more specifically college football. Since the introduction of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) and the NCAA transfer portal, the landscape of college football has been rapidly changing.
Just this offseason alone, we've seen some of the top players hit the portal; quarterback Caleb Williams followed former Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley to USC, and even wide receiver Jermaine Burton left Georgia for Alabama. Most recently, the Biletnikoff Award winner Jordan Addison entered the transfer portal after a season where he established himself as one of the top wide receivers in the country at Pittsburgh.
Almost immediately, the University of Southern California was the frontrunner in the race to land the wide-out, as reports broke that USC was offering Addison compensation through the guise of a NIL deal to entice the former Panther. These reports led to outrage that a "pay-to-play" scheme was taking over college football, and the word "tampering" took over the headlines.
With tampering being such a hot-button topic even after the NCAA sent out new guidelines regarding NIL, Kirby Smart gave his insight into how tampering is unfolding at the collegiate level.
"I don't believe there's as much tampering as people think. What I think is there are kids who grow up thinking 'if it doesn't work out here, I should go somewhere else.' Tampering comes from the player searching somewhere else, not from a coach reaching out. Look, I've had kids reach out to me from other programs and call and say things, and you can't talk to them. I know it happens from our place out and from other places. I don't worry as much about tampering as I do about: are we doing the right thing for the kids when they have adversity or things are tough?"
- Kirby Smart on tampering
In those aforementioned new guidelines sent out, the NCAA made a big deal about it being "retroactive" in that if any program is suspected of breaking the already existing bylaws, they could be investigated and sanctioned by the NCAA. Pair this with the May 1st deadline for transfers who wish to gain immediate eligibility already having passed; the NCAA is looking to put these tampering accusations to bed.
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