Georgia head coach Kirby Smart has not led the Bulldogs to a College Football Playoff victory in three years. This has caused many to question and doubt UGA’s ability to remain a top-tier program in college football. Despite three years without a College Football Playoff win, Smart has compiled an impressive ten-year record: 117 wins and 21 losses, including two national titles, four SEC titles, and a 9–4 postseason mark.
Georgia Faces Criticism Over Resources and NIL
Smart’s latest critic is FOX Sports analyst Colin Cowherd, host of The Herd. Cowherd’s criticism of the program that Smart has built is that it doesn’t have the money to compete going forward.
“I don’t know about Georgia,” Cowherd said in reference to his top ten teams of the next decade on The Colin Cowherd Podcast. “And the reason I said that was, one, I’ve watched what happened to Alabama quickly. Now Georgia’s from Atlanta—there’s more money. You’ve got Delta and Coca-Cola corporations. But I said Georgia’s got 17 Fortune 500 companies; California has 58; Texas has 54. So I said Georgia just lost their No. 1 booster last year. They’ve lost five DBs in the portal. They got outbid for a quarterback by [Vanderbilt].”
Cowherd then broadened his analysis, moving from Georgia’s situation to the wider landscape of college football. In the NIL and transfer portal era, highlighting which programs he expects to dominate over the next decade.
“Now the portal and the NIL are established—it’s a bidding war. I said here who I think, over the next 10 years, are the 10 programs of note. I said Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech—it’s oil money. Michigan, Notre Dame—endowments are massive. Ohio State, because they’re Ohio State—lot of money. Oregon—Phil Knight money. Indiana, because of Cuban and Cignetti. That’s a business school with a massive alumni. And I said 10 to USC because I watched them spend a fortune in the last year. They just bought the No. 1 recruiting class.”
Cowherd didn’t mention Miami in this episode, but he has previously included the Hurricanes among the programs positioned to benefit most from the NIL era. Miami has long leveraged strong donor support and resources to maintain a competitive advantage.
To summarize, here are Cowherd’s top college football teams for the next decade:
- Miami
- USC
- Texas
- Texas A&M
- Texas Tech
- Notre Dame
- Oregon
- Ohio State
- Michigan
- Indiana
Cowherd added a final point about whether traditional powers like Georgia can consistently compete:
“There’s this sense that, OK, we understand Bama’s not a big state, and I’m like, I don’t know. I don’t know if Georgia can. I mean, A&M’s gonna poach ’em, Texas gonna poach ’em, Notre Dame’s gonna poach ’em, and Texas Tech may poach Texas. Where’s the guarantee, outside of Texas oil money, that LSU, Bama, and Georgia are in this playoff every year?”
Why Georgia Can Remain a NIL-Driven Contender
Despite Cowherd’s concerns, Georgia is well-positioned to thrive in the NIL era. The Bulldogs’ close location to Atlanta gives them access to major corporations and regional sponsorships. The program’s winning culture, player development, and national titles create opportunities for lucrative NIL deals. Of the top 10 teams in FEI (opponent-adjusted team efficiency) this season, Georgia ranks No. 2 in NIL spending on its roster. Over the past year, the university is No. 6 in increased endowments among public universities. Kirby Smart has built a system that attracts top talent and maximizes their success on and off the field. With these resources, Georgia can remain a consistent College Football Playoff contender in a competitive, NIL-driven era.
