Georgia coach Kirby Smart takes playful jab at Dan Lanning, Phil Knight

In the world of college football, the current mountaintop is the Georgia Bulldogs. Under the lead of head coach Kirby Smart, they have won two of the last three national championships, and arguably should have been in the College Football Playoff again last year as well.

If you were to ask almost anyone in the nation if they would trade places with Georgia, the answer would likely be yes.

But Smart may be looking elsewhere with some envy.

This week at the SEC Media Day, Smart took a playful jab at his former colleague Dan Lanning and the Ducks, making a remark about how jealous he was of the NIL money that Oregon gets from Phil Knight and Nike.

“I wish I could get some of that NIL money that he’s sharing with Dan Lanning,” Smart said of Knight. “But that’s another note.”

The subject of Oregon and NIL has become a major talking point lately after former UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel claimed on his Sirius XM show that the Ducks had an “ unlimited” budget from Nike as Knight pursues a national championship from his alma mater.

This talk has been fueled even more recently with Oregon’s latest string of victories on the recruiting trail, landing 5-star CB Dorian Brew and 5-star WR Dakorien Moore. The Ducks are also projected to pick up both 5-star S DJ Pickett and 5-star S Trey McNutt this week as well.

Whether the reports of “unlimited” NIL are true or not, it’s clear that Lanning and his program are the envy of even the best teams in the nation for what they’ve got going in Eugene.

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