The Georgia Bulldogs suffered a crushing 39-34 defeat at the hands of the Ole Miss Rebels in the Sugar Bowl on January 1. Georgia was also bounced from the College Football Playoff last season in the Sugar Bowl. This marks the first time the Bulldogs have lost back-to-back bowl games since 2010-2011.
This begs the question: What happened to all the Georgia dynasty talk? After winning back-to-back national titles, Georgia was the hottest thing going. Now it’s been three years since they won a playoff game.
Are NIL and the Transfer Portal to blame for Georgia’s fall from grace?
Georgia won its first of back-to-back national titles in 2021, but something else significant also started that year. In July of 2021, college players were allowed to make money off their name, image, and likeness (NIL). Coupled with the Transfer Portal, which opened on October 15, 2018, the landscape of college football was changed forever. Players could now be paid to leave their current school and join another roster with immediate availability.
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This is something previous college football dynasties had not had to deal with. In fact, NIL and the Transfer Portal were what led Nick Saban to retire. Players wondering more about how much money they were going to be making the following year, rather than how to get better, was too much.
Saban in March of 2024:
“So I’m saying to myself, ‘Maybe this doesn’t work anymore, that the goals and aspirations are just different and that it’s all about how much money can I make as a college player?’ I’m not saying that’s bad. I’m not saying it’s wrong, I’m just saying that’s never been what we were all about, and it’s not why we had success through the years.”
The Challenge that Kirby Smart and Georgia face
These are now the challenges that Georgia head coach Kirby Smart faces. Being able to pay players to leave their current team has gutted Georgia’s depth. Take a look at the difference in the number of players who have left Georgia every year when the transfer portal opened in 2018 vs in 2021 when NIL became available.
Georgia players lost to transfer since 2018:
- 2018: 1 player
- 2019: 4 players
- 2020: 4 players
- 2021: 10 players
- 2022: 14 players
- 2023: 15 players
- 2024: 25 players
- 2025: 18 players
Georgia signed 26.6 recruits per recruiting cycle from 2021 to 2025. It lost an average of 16.4 players to the portal from 2021 to 2025. That means that from 2021 to 2025, Georgia had more than half of a recruiting class transfer per year. How can you build depth with that much turnover?
Georgia recruiting even took a hit this year
Also consider that NIL can be used to lure recruits to a school after high school. Smart has continued to stack top recruiting classes, but they fell outside the Top 5 in 2026 for the first time since 2016.
Below is Georgia’s recruiting class rank according to 247Sports’ Composite:
- 2016: No. 6
- 2017: No. 3
- 2018: No. 1
- 2019: No. 2
- 2020: No. 1
- 2021: No. 4
- 2022: No. 3
- 2023: No. 2
- 2024: No. 1
- 2025: No. 2
- 2026: No. 6
Georgia signed just one 5-star (according to 247Sports’ Composite) out of the 2026 recruiting cycle. This is the first time Georgia has signed just one 5-star under Smart.
247 Composite 5-stars signed
- 2016: 3
- 2017: 3
- 2018: 7
- 2019: 5
- 2020: 4
- 2021: 4
- 2022: 5
- 2023: 2
- 2024: 5
- 2025: 5
- 2026: 1
There was a lot of talk about Georgia being “the next Alabama” after the 2021 and 2022 seasons. However, a lot of that has fizzled. Georgia is no longer looking like the standard program of college football. Since the College Football Playoff has expanded to 12 teams, Georgia has 0 playoff wins. Georgia hasn’t won a bowl game since dismantling an FSU team in the Orange Bowl, with most of its team opting out.
“I don’t know that a lot of these kids nowadays, they want the check,” Smart said recently. “They don’t want physicality. When you have the check and no physicality, you end up with nothing. So you’re not just getting checks at our place. We’re hitting people.”
Georgia and the end of dynasty assumptions
Georgia’s recent postseason struggles do not signal the collapse of the program, but they do signal the end of old assumptions. The Bulldogs are no longer operating in a landscape where elite recruiting alone guarantees roster stability, depth dominance, or postseason success. NIL and the Transfer Portal have fundamentally altered the balance of power, rewarding immediacy over patience and mobility over continuity. For a program built on overwhelming depth and long-term development, that shift has narrowed the margin that once separated Georgia from the rest of the sport.
The dynasty conversation was rooted in a version of college football that no longer exists. Georgia is still elite, still capable of competing for championships, but the structural advantages that fueled back-to-back national titles have eroded. Until Georgia consistently adapts to a system that prioritizes retention as much as acquisition, postseason results will continue to lag behind expectations. The question is no longer whether Georgia can build a championship roster—it is whether sustained dominance is still possible in a sport that no longer allows dynasties to operate the way they once did.
One Response
Absolutely no question that NIL & transfer portal have hurt UGA but they are not alone. Dynasties will never be allowed to happen again until some form of control is instituted. The NCAA should be at the front of this but they have become a totally powerless body of old blue hairs and 3 piece suit wearers who want nothing to do but protect their paychecks and positions.
They allowed the bigger schools to dictate changes and policies with no resistance. Then big money and greed took over. No way a player should be allowed to transfer 3 or 4 times in a career. Many of these players will never make a professional paycheck. Only 1 to 2% of college athletes turn pro. They are just grabbing what they can while they can. Absolutely DISGRACEFUL. No loyalty to school,teammates. Just 💵.