College football is faced with a number of issues, but there isn’t one more important than the transfer portal date, Kirby Smart contends.

The Georgia coach, while speaking Tuesday during the SEC Spring Meetings, laid it out for the reporters in attendance at the yearly event.

“I am so glad you asked that question,” Smart told the gathered media. “The biggest decision that has to be made in college football right now, by far, is when is the portal window and is there one or two.

“I think it’s really important in football to have your team your team at whatever date in January, whatever we decide that is, and then you work those guys out. You train those guys, you lift, you prepare, you do meetings and all this preparation, and then that’s your team.”

Smart added that the coaches at the AFCA meeting “unanimously decided there needed to be one portal window, whatever that is, is what is. It needs to happen sometime in January.”

Still, he admitted there is a push for April or May, so programs can practice in June. That won’t work for Smart’s Bulldogs, he said. Georgia has 10 days of high school camp in June, and something will have to give.

“Needless to say, I’m a proponent for a January, wherever it fits, window,” Smart said. “I’m a big believer in that, I think that’s the decision that has to be made, at least from the standpoint of the SEC and bigger picture, the country, when is the portal window and is there two or is there one.”

Mark Heim is a reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim. He can be heard on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5 FM in Mobile or on the free Sound of Mobile App from 6 to 9 a.m. daily.