DALLAS — While Kirby Smart didn’t go into detail about potential suspensions for linebacker Smael Mondon and offensive lineman Bo Hughley after the pair were arrested on traffic-related charges last week, the Georgia coach did discuss punishment. According to Smart, players involved in off-field incidents like traffic arrests are subject to fines from the program’s NIL collective.
“Our Classic City Collective for over a year has been substantially fining guys for those things,” Smart told Dawgs247. “That’s not something that’s new. That’s something that has been going on that’s outside of my jurisdiction and they decided to do and implement and have done to a considerable amount. We’re searching and trying to find the best ways.”
Sources told CBS Sports’ John Talty that collectives have slowly started wading into the waters of punishment and enforcement. Another agent told CBS Sports that some collectives are also to fining athletes for skipping classes as well.
“It’s happening at a few places,” one collective leader said. “It’s starting to be more widely adopted.”
It’s not without controversy, though. NIL collective lawyer Mit Winter cautioned that while withholding payments to athletes is legal, it also treads murky waters regarding players’ potential employment status.
“Like any other contract, the parties are free to agree to anything that’s not illegal and it’s not illegal for a business to fine a contractor for certain behavior,” Winter told CBS Sports. “But doing things like this could cross the line into the athletes being considered employees of the collective, since the collective is controlling their behavior. And if the directive to fine the athletes is coming from coaches or the school that could also create a number of legal issues.”
“What it will do is affect recruiting,” one SEC coach told CBS Sports about a possible negative impact of NIL fines.
Counting Mondon and Hughley, more than 20 Georgia players have been ticketed for traffic-related charges over the past 18 months. Of those, at least seven have been arrested. In January 2023 Georgia football player Devin Willock and staffer Chandler LeCroy were killed in a deadly car accident while celebrating the Bulldogs’ 2022 national championship. Police allege that LeCroy was racing with then-player Jalen Carter when her car crashed.
Smart showed concern about the unusually high number of incidents but defended his programs’ efforts to address the problem during his appearance at SEC Media Days on Tuesday.
“I think the number one thing is that it’s disappointing anytime you have a situation like that,” Smart said. “You want your kids, your players, to make better decisions. I always say, you can’t be outcome-related. I’m very disappointed with the outcomes, but I am very pleased with the process we’ve put in in terms of education, driver safety, requiring defensive driving, education, talking about it, having leaders stand up and talk about it, bringing speakers in, suspending or dismissing players.
“I don’t know to this point any college football coaches who have suspended a player for a driving citation. We have. We have. We’ve also dismisised players based on driving citations. No one has done that. Hopefully, they get the idea, the information. But we have a really good locker room. I feel really good about that. I love the players we have. We’ve got good kids.”
