Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart has become arguably the most important voice in college football when it comes to head coaches since the retirement of Nick Saban, and when he speaks behind a podium, the whole sport listens.

This week at SEC Spring Meetings in Destin, Smart talked about the existential issues facing college sports and how there continues to be no enforceable rules from the NCAA.

While the idea of a conference policing themselves has been brought up before, Smart took the stance that not only could have the SEC play by its own set of rules, but if a system cannot be agreed upon by all soon, perhaps the conference could play by itself — independent from the rest of the sport.

“I’ve said this for a long time to our president, I’ve been a huge advocate that if we can’t find rules that everybody plays by, then we should play our own,” he said. “I’m not afraid of that. I’m not afraid to break away and say that our conference is strong enough….If we could actually function and we could support things financially — I’m talking about all sports — and do by our own rules, I’d be all for that.”

Smart went on to talk about the frustration of not being able to get things done for fear of litigation, and why this has potentially pushed things to the point where they are now.

“I’ve been to this meeting now 10, 11 times and it’s frustrating to say ‘Well, we can’t do this because of litigation, we can’t do this because we’ll get sued.’ We’re just trying to do things for the betterment of the sport and the betterment of the student athletes, and that’s not curtailing what money they make, I’m not advocating that they make less money…I’m trying to make it where it’s as equal and as comparable footing for everybody and not a race to the bottom as they say.”

It’s unlikely we will ever see the day where the SEC is playing independently, but the fact that it’s being discussed at all, let alone by the most notable coach in the conference, is a significant development.