Kirby Smart: Georgia football turning down White House visit 'not political'
Georgia football coach Kirby Smart said the decision to turn down an invitation to the White House next month came down to simply a matter of timing.
The school said Tuesday that the football team was invited to visit the White House and President Joe Biden on June 12, but it was not “feasible given the student-athlete calendar and time of year.”
Smart, speaking Wednesday morning before playing in a pro-am event for the Champions Tour in Hoover, Ala., cited the demands from hosting football campers at UGA and recruiting on campus.
“It’s a tough deal,” Smart said. “Timeline-wise it didn’t work. Traditionally, I went three times when I was at Alabama and it was right after the game. That didn’t happen. We didn’t have a date set and we’ve got 700 kids at a football camp at our place June 6, 7, 8. It’s the number one time for recruiting for football coaches. You’ve got 600 to 700 kids coming to your campus, you can’t leave to go to the White House and have no one on your campus. So the time just didn’t work out. There was nothing political about it. I’ve been before. It’s very educational. It’s a great experience.”
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A White House official said on Feb. 22 that Georgia would be getting an invitation. Georgia preferred to visit in the weeks after the national championship win due to the football calendar. The White House and Georgia explored when may be another time to make a visit happen.
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The June 12 date was extended to Georgia May 3 as a standalone event, but Georgia said it wouldn’t work out. When Georgia was asked for any additional dates that would work this year, none were offered.
The White House is now planning to host dozens of NCAA men’s and women’s championship teams to “College Athlete Day,” according to SI.com
--Richard Silva of USA Today Sports contributed to this story.
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: UGA football's Kirby Smart: Declining White House visit not political
