ATHENS — Kirby Smart is doing more with less according to a recent story in The Athletic that’s reporting Georgia is 10th in the SEC and 18th in the nation in football roster budget.
The Athletic reports UGA spends between $31 and $34 million on its football roster — some $14 to $21 million less than SEC leader and current No. 1-ranked Texas spends ($45 to $55 million).
A source told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the roster numbers they are aware of do not factor in the front-loading player acquisition that occurred before the current NIL revenue-sharing cap was put into place.
The Bulldogs are ranked No. 2 in the most recent AP Top 25 poll and are coming off back-back SEC championship game wins over Texas and Alabama.
Only Ohio State ($49 to $54 million) and Oregon ($48 to $54) million are believed on par with Texas, while LSU is reportedly spending $47 to $50 million.
Smart, in his 11th year as head coach at UGA, says he has all the money and resources he needs to compete for national championships — even while appearing to be at a significant disadvantage.
“We have no issue with resources, facilities, availability,” Smart said at SEC media days.
“There’s never been something that I asked our administration to do from a number to go to to get a player out of the portal or get a player in high school that they weren’t willing to do.”
Georgia’s relatively low rank in roster spending among championship contenders is somewhat surprising.
Part of the reason Georgia’s roster budget ranks near the middle of the SEC is Smart’s conservative strategy adding players from the transfer portal last offseason.
The Bulldogs took on only nine players, while losing at SEC-low to the transfer portal.
Smart had to spend money to retain players, both proven and unproven, but likely not as much as it would take to sign quality veteran players whose agents had power to leverage deals through the portal.
Monroe Freeling, the most recent of the 21 first-round NFL draft picks (Carolina Panthers) Smart has produced, explained why players are willing to stay at less money than they could make by entering the portal and putting their talents up for bid.
“I just think it’s the culture of our program, you don’t really come to Georgia if you’re just trying to get paid,” Freeling said at the 2026 NFL Combine.
“You come to Georgia to get developed and go to the NFL.”
Smart believes in his players’ development, and that’s why he’s taken the approach to retain the vast majority of his scholarship players with remaining eligibility.
“When you look across the country, we’ve done as good of a job as anybody of retaining our roster and not having to go wholesale into the portal,” Smart said this fall.
“… We just keep thinking that if we pour into our guys, that our development is going to be better than taking a guy that’s second, third, fourth year that somebody else developed.”
Georgia’s veteran presence has led Smart to take a different approach through the first two games, as he’s worked to develop the sort of depth that will be needed with the SEC moving to a nine-game league schedule this season.
UGA has 34 players who have played at least three seasons for the Bulldogs, compared to last season’s team, which had 25.
While the football roster budgets might seem high to college football traditionalists still becoming accustomed to players getting paid, a look at UGA’s finances explains the investment.
Georgia’s 2025 NCAA financial report revealed football generated $38.9 million of the school’s $42.1 million in ticket revenue and took in $44.1 million of the $52.1 million in contributions.
Smart has championed the need for football to continue funding other Olympic sports — which has led to three-straight Top 10 finish in the Learfield Director’s Cup — as well as the spending on his own program.
Here’s what The Athletic reported, citing 70 unnamed sources consisting of general managers, personal directors, athletic directors and agents for independent, “trustworthy” estimates of what programs are spending:
Top College Football Roster Spending:
(Per The Athletic)
Texas $45-$55 million
LSU $47-50 million
Texas A&M $45-50 million
Ole Miss $39-$45 million
Tennessee $41-$43 million
Alabama $38-42 million
Florida $31-41 million
South Carolina $32-35 million
Auburn $31-35 million
Georgia $31-34 million
Oklahoma $28-34 million
Missouri $27-30 million
Mississippi State $25-30 million
Vanderbilt $25-$28 millio
Kentucky $23-26 million
Arkansas $22-25 million
Other schools projected higher than UGA:
Ohio State $49-54 million
Oregon $48-54 million
Miami $44-50 million
Notre Dame $41-$48 million
Texas Tech $38-$42 million
Michigan $36-40 million
Indiana $36-40 million
Nebraska $31-35 million
