Kentucky's Mark Stoops After Loss to Georgia: UGA 'Bought Some Pretty Good Players'

Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops became the newest member of his profession to offer a straightforward assessment of the NIL era.

During his call-in show, Stoops said Georgia "bought some pretty good players" and told Wildcats fans they should donate more money if they were upset with last Saturday's 51-13 loss to the Bulldogs.

Some will see Stoops' comments as a lamentation of the current landscape or a veiled shot at Georgia. Alabama head coach Nick Saban got in hot water when he said in May 2022 that Texas A&M "bought every player on their team," a comment he quickly apologized for.

Stoops may simply have been attempting to motivate the UK fanbase by alluding to the cost of building a program on par with Georgia. Building a College Football Playoff contender isn't cheap.

Whatever the context, citing NIL money as the reason for a team's success often comes across as a bit of a cop out, especially when the team in question is Georgia.

Head coach Kirby Smart was turning the Bulldogs into a juggernaut before he had the added the benefit of NIL endorsements to draw blue-chip recruits to Athens. He was hired in December 2015 and had UGA sitting third in 247Sports' composite team rankings by 2017. The team then occupied the top spot in 2018.

The backbone of the 2021 and 2022 national champion squads was formed before NIL entered into the equation.

The fact is, there have always been haves and have-nots in college football. The sport is a zero-sum game both on the field and in recruiting, so the success of one program often comes at the cost of an in-state or conference rival. And with so much money on the line in terms of potential NFL earnings, elite high school athletes are more apt to take the sure thing.

You could take NIL off the table entirely and the gulf between Georgia and Kentucky would remain.