Paying players to sign with your school is still technically illegal under NCAA rules, but many coaches and observers have come to accept it as a fact of life in the age of NIL.

Two days after his previously unbeaten team lost 51-13 to top-ranked Georgia, Kentucky coach Mark Stoops seemed resigned to that idea. Appearing on his weekly radio show Monday night, Stoops didn’t seem bitter the Bulldogs have such an effective NIL program; he was more concerned that his school and its fans could be doing more to keep up.

“You’ve got to own it, you’ve got to solve it and then you’ve got to go do it,” Stoops said, via Kentucky.com. “The other side of that is, if you want to do that, complain, deny or make excuses. And we’re not going to do that. It is what it is.

“Fans have that right. I give it to them. I just encourage them to donate more, because that’s what those dudes are doing. I can promise you Georgia, they bought some pretty good players. You’re allowed to these days. We could use some help.”

Stoops is Kentucky’s all-time winningest football coach with 71 victories in 11 seasons, but he’s 0-11 vs. Georgia. The Wildcats have not beaten the Bulldogs since 2009, and have not won an outright SEC championship in football since 1950.

It’s worth noting that Georgia was recruiting at a high level even before NIL legislation was passed during the summer of 2021. Since Kirby Smart arrived in 2016, the Bulldogs have finished no worse than sixth in the national recruiting rankings.