ATHENS — Kirby Smart has seen the sport of college football change a great deal in the 10 years he has been the head coach at Georgia.

Through it all, recruiting has always been at the heart of the Georgia program. Georgia has signed a top-10 recruiting class in every cycle under Smart. He’s signed a top-5 class every year dating back to his first full recruiting cycle in 2017.

But winning two national championships and producing a horde of draft picks hasn’t made convincing the next wave of elite recruits to come to Athens significantly easier.

With the introduction of name, image and likeness deals, the transfer portal and now revenue-sharing, Smart recognizes how much more difficult it is to land top talent.

“I love the relationships,” Smart told Mark Schlabach of ESPN. “I can’t say that I love having a relationship until the finish line and then it becomes a transaction. That makes it hard. Before you got attached to someone and you lost them to somebody else, maybe because of a better relationship or some other reason. It’s hard when you get to the end now, and you think you’ve got the better relationship and you lose somebody to something else. [NIL is] just an outside element that you don’t control.

“I don’t fault the kid for that. I just think it’s the way it is, so you can’t lose sleep when a kid makes the decision based on that because who can blame them?”

NIL hasn’t hurt Georgia too much, as the Bulldogs signed the No. 2-ranked recruiting class for 2025 and have the No. 2 recruiting class in the 2026 cycle.

But there have been several high-profile misses where Georgia had the longest-standing relationship with a prospect, only to lose out at the 11th hour. In the 2025 recruiting cycle, 5-star defensive lineman Justus Terry spurned Georgia for Texas.

Linebacker Tyler Atkinson, a 5-star prospect and someone who Georgia offered as an eighth-grader, also picked the Longhorns in the 2025 cycle. The No. 1 offensive tackle in the 2026 recruiting class, Jackson Cantwell, picked Miami despite also praising the relationship he developed with the Georgia staff.

The Bulldogs do have a commitment from Jared Curtis, the No. 1 quarterback in the country. You don’t land someone of his caliber cheaply in this day and age.

Time will tell if these decisions end up hurting Georgia. Even when the Bulldogs lose out on a recruit, Smart doesn’t want to harbor any ill will.

But the Georgia coach does wonder what kind of long-term effect the transactional aspect has on development.

“You’re starting to see a little bit less focus to make it there because they have a huge distraction, I would call it,” Smart said. “I can fly to Miami this weekend. I can do this. I can do that. I can go buy this extra car. I can live extravagantly, which human nature is to relax when you’ve made good money and access. 

“You’re seeing kids that probably four or five years ago would have been first-, second-round picks not turn out to be picks at all, and it’s just sad.”

Smart has developed more first-round picks at Georgia, 20, than games he’s lost, 19.

Georgia takes on Alabama this week, with the game set for 7:30 p.m. ET. Many of Georgia’s top 2026 commits and future targets will be in attendance for the massive contest.