NIL Got Kirby Smart to Give In on All-White Uniforms

Georgia will wear all-white uniforms for the first time in school history this weekend when it takes on Western Kentucky in Athens.

The slick alternate kit, titled “Unleashed” by the football department, is the result of a fundraising challenge posed to Bulldogs fans by head coach Kirby Smart during a press conference back in March: If subscriptions to Glory Glory—a paywalled website that houses content relating to Georgia athletics—tripled before the team’s spring game on April 18, he said, Georgia would wear white uniforms for a 2026 regular-season matchup. Bulldogs fans have been clamoring for the look ever since recruits started donning it during campus-visit photoshoots a few years ago. 

“I’m so sick of hearing about it,” Smart, a traditionalist, said of the alternate uniforms on the first day of spring practice in March. “But to be honest with you, if they can triple our subscribers to Glory Glory, I’ll wear the shit.”

That same day, Georgia football’s equipment staff posted about Smart’s challenge and the potential white uniforms on Instagram. The fans answered the call, and Smart unveiled the uniform combination during the team’s first preseason practice meeting on Aug. 4, with defensive back KJ Bolden and tight end Lawson Luckie modeling the look. The team’s reaction was teased on Instagram, with the full reveal being released exclusively on Glory Glory’s website. 

First launched in February, Glory Glory bills itself as “a distinct legal entity separate from UGA.” For a starting price of $20 a month, fans can get access to exclusive coach and athlete interviews, recruiting analysis, behind-the-scenes stories, and more. Proceeds, in part, go toward Georgia’s name, image, and likeness (NIL) efforts.

While a smattering of schools across the Big Ten, ACC, and Big 12 have similar sites—usually described as “fan engagement communities” or a university’s “official fan experience”—they are most common in the SEC, where all participating institutions but Missouri and Vanderbilt operate one. 

In addition to proprietary content, many sell a range of merchandise—Alabama’s platform, Yea Alabama, even sells its own water—and organize events, like pre-game parties and networking mixers. Tennessee’s “The Volunteer Club” offers one autograph item per month for its lowest tier and “two autographed, premium items” annually at its highest tier. Members also often get access to members-only message boards and sometimes to typically closed-door athletic events, including Pro Days.

At all schools, perks depend on the membership tiers, which typically range from $5 to $500 per month. Glory Glory’s $20/month starting price includes two complimentary tickets to a private football practice, access to the website’s exclusive digital content and message board, and early access to Glory Glory events, experiences, and exclusive merchandise. 

Within the SEC, the average starting price for membership programs is $17.71. The least expensive is Yea Alabama ($5/month); The Volunteer Club is the most expensive at $35/month. Nationally, the average price of a school’s lowest price point is $13.84. Only one entity, Penn State’s “Happy Valley United,” offers a free tier that allows some community access. 

Roughly one-fourth of Power Four programs have dissolved their NIL collectives because of the landmark House settlement agreement in 2025, which introduced a revenue-sharing cap between universities and athletes. Universities are permitted, but not required, to distribute athletic revenue to athletes up to a cap of 22% of the “average shared revenue” generated by Power Five member institutions. For the 2025–2026 academic year, institutions were able to distribute $20.5 million (which does not include grant-in-aid) among their athletes, with that figure increasing throughout the 10-year settlement term. 

The official revenue-sharing cap for universities during the 2026–27 academic year is approximately $21.3 million to $21.58 million per school, according to the College Sports Commission. 

While some universities dissolved their version of these third-party entities to bring everything in-house under their athletic departments, many have decided to repurpose the organizations to supplement revenue sharing. 

Some organizations, like Missouri’s “Every True Tiger” and USC’s “The Shield” operate as business registries that partner student-athletes with businesses, donors, and alumni for specific NIL deals in a marketplace-like setting. Other organizations operate as hubs for fan engagement, which requires a fee. 

These entities operate separately from the universities, but with university support, create an additional revenue stream to pay players above the House settlement cap. The goal is to generate revenue through recurring payments and leverage the number of subscribers to create additional NIL opportunities for athletes. 

For schools like Alabama, Georgia, Louisville, Mississippi State, and more who have converted their collective entities to full-time content websites, the strategy is to provide exclusive, in-depth media access that’s not available through traditional media channels, and give prospective athletes an opportunity to build their personal brands by allowing them to create original content through the entities’ websites. 

Several such sites are powered by a company called RallyTown, founded last year by college sports attorney Jay Ezelle and former Comcast executive Chris Reynolds. RallyTown provides the website infrastructure and hires and manages the staff who produce content and oversee in-person events; headcount hovers around four to seven employees per site. 

Despite their rapid proliferation, these platforms have largely flown under the radar—until earlier this week, when Georgia football’s X/Twitter account shared a post directing fans to head to the Glory Glory site if they wanted to watch full highlights from the Bulldogs’ season opener against Tennessee State. It sparked backlash almost immediately, with diehards and casuals alike—and not just Georgia fans— complaining that a content format as basic as game highlights should not be paywalled. 

Such complaints come amid a growing conversation regarding the cost of fandom, between ticket prices and the increased prevalence of paywalled streaming services in media rights deals. It’s unclear how many other schools’ websites paywall their highlights, although it does not appear to be a common practice at this point.

Glory Glory declined to respond to Front Office Sports questions about its content strategy, whether the highlight video included broadcast footage and, if so, whether it had ESPN’s permission to use it, or its plans for future game highlights. ESPN also declined to comment.

The site will have a physical presence at Saturday’s game versus Western Kentucky beyond the white uniforms it inspired; the Glory Glory logo will also replace the traditional “Power G” logo on the official game ball.