In an unexpected show of SEC rivals working together, a Georgia bill put forward by an LSU grad, at the advice of former Alabama coach Nick Saban, seeks to make college NIL money exempt from the state’s income tax.
The bill’s main author, Georgia state Sen. Brandon Beach, said in a phone call the idea spawned from a dinner he had with Saban and spouses two weeks before the start of this past college football season, at the home of a mutual friend in Lake Burton, Ga.
As the dinner conversation naturally turned to college sports, Beach said Saban casually offered a suggestion on how he could make things easier for his former assistant, Kirby Smart, now the head coach at Georgia.
“If you want to do one thing to help Kirby with recruiting is to eliminate the state income tax on the NIL deals,” Beach recalled Saban telling him.
Georgia has a flat individual income tax rate of 5.39%—the highest of any Southeastern Conference state besides South Carolina, which has a graduated rate topping out at 6.2%. Texas, Tennessee and Florida, on the other hand, have no individual income tax.
So, earlier this week, Beach and four other Republican state senators sponsored Senate Bill 71, which would amend the state’s current tax code to give college athletes enrolled in Georgia universities a tax break.
Given the popularity of college football in Georgia, Beach told Sportico, “I look at this like an economic development bill.” Apart from his state senate post, Beach serves as executive of True North 400, North Fulton County’s community improvement district.
The legislator expressed uncertainty about whether the bill would apply to revenue-sharing payments made directly by schools to athletes, as provided for in the House v. NCAA settlement, but suggested that it was only his intent to address the current kinds of NIL money athletes are receiving. (According to the House settlement, the payments would be for the use of athletes’ NIL.)
Beach pointed to Georgia quarterback Carson Beck’s decision last month to transfer to Miami—reportedly with a promise of over $3 million in NIL money from the Hurricanes’ NIL collective—and noted that Saban helped him realize how crucial tax-related concerns have become in recruiting pitches.
“It’s so competitive out there,” said Beach. “This is a tool for Kirby [Smart’s] and [Georgia Tech football coach] Brent Key’s toolbox to be able to, you know, go after those five-star athletes and let them know that we’ve got an even playing field here.”
To be sure, Georgia is generally not cited as being on the short end of college sports’ financial stick; UGA, for example, leads the nation in football recruiting expenditures, having reported spending $5.26 million on that line item in 2022-23.
Nevertheless, Peach State pols have a longstanding tradition of bending over backwards for the Bulldogs.
In 2016, then Gov. Nathan Deal signed into law a bill that would give its state university’s athletic departments a 90-day dispensation to respond to public records requests. The legislation, according to its sponsors, was designed to prevent rival programs from accessing sensitive recruitment information from schools like the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech. That bill came to be known as “Kirby’s Law,” a nod to Smart having advocated for its passage, though the coach would later express frustration at the association.
(Beach said that he has not yet spoken with Smart about his bill.)
In May 2021, Georgia became one of the early enactors of a college athlete name, image and likeness law, two months before the NCAA adopted its NIL interim policy. Then this past September, Gov. Brian Kemp signed an executive order making Georgia one of the first states to allow its schools to directly engage in NIL agreements without NCAA interference.
Given the copy-cat nature of state-based college sports legislation, it seems like politicians from other income-taxing states will closely follow, and Beach said he has already received a number of inquiring phone calls this week.
Previously, Beach gained national attention for his flouting of COVID-19 protocols in the early part of the pandemic—prompting a call for the entire state legislature to self-quarantine—and his effort to overturn the 2020 presidential vote in Georgia. In 2021, Georgia’s Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan stripped Beach of his transportation committee chairmanship, but Beach reclaimed that gavel in early 2023.
Michael McCann contributed to this report.
