Kirby Smart knows winning last year’s SEC Championship game came with a price. Quarterback Carson Beck suffered a season-ending injury in the win over Texas, while the win set Georgia up with a game against Notre Dame.

But Smart has no regrets about how things played out last season and how it impacted Georgia’s season or expectations.

“To win the SEC in the way we won it, I think Texas and us were both really beat up in the grueling season,” Smart said in an appearance with Paul Finebaum. “We played seven overtimes a week before. They go play at – I guess it was at A&M. I mean, we both came kind of walking wounded into that and talking to Sark about it. It took a lot out of both our teams to play in that game.”

Georgia actually played an eight-overtime game against rival Georgia Tech before having to go to and pull out an overtime win against the Longhorns.

With Beck out injured, Gunner Stockton stepped in to lead the Bulldogs to an overtime victory. The win gave Georgia a bye but it did end up matching them up with Notre Dame.

Texas, for losing the game, faced Clemson at home before next talking on Arizona State. Both teams were ranked lower than Notre Dame, though Arizona State was seeded higher by virtue of winning the Big 12.

The Longhorns saw their season come to an end against Ohio State in the College Football Playoff semifinals.

The playoff results have had an impact in how Texas and Georgia have been viewed entering the upcoming 2025 season. Most see Texas as the top team in the SEC, while Georgia has something to prove.

“We go all day, have a good run in the playoffs,” Smart said of Texas. “We don’t. Notre Dame beats us, and Notre Dame had a great team, and they’ve done a great job there. I’m very pleased with where we were. Do I want to win a National Championship? Absolutely. But that’s not going to be the be-all and end-all for us. We want to get the most out of every team we can.”

Smart acknowledges that it’s a good thing to have championship expectations. With a 12-team College Football Playoff, teams are going to need more to go right in order to win a championship.

Georgia won back-to-back national championships during the 2021 and 2022 seasons. Georgia famously didn’t win the 2021 SEC Championship, losing to Alabama before beating the Crimson Tide in the rematch.

Smart is 3-4 in SEC Championship games during his time at Georgia. With Texas and Oklahoma now annual members in the league, winning the SEC is going to be all the more difficult, especially in the event the league expands to nine conference games.

“I actually think that it’s a great thing when you win a 16-team SEC conference, and it’s probably one of the best years we’ve had in terms of winning games,” Smart said. “And it is hard to do when you play seven or eight top-ten teams, which we were able to do. But I really don’t get caught up in it. I love the expectation. I embrace that. I think that’s a good thing because if it’s not there, then what are you playing for, you know?”

Georgia faces a similarly tough SEC schedule in 2025, though it does face Texas, Alabama and Ole Miss at home. The Bulldogs played them all on the road last season. Georgia visits Tennessee and Auburn in 2025 as its marquee road games.

The Bulldogs open the 2025 season against Marshall on Aug. 30. Georgia’s first SEC game is against Tennessee on Sept. 13.

More money and support for workforce training in rural areas and early college programs across Texas advanced in the Capitol this week.

They are among lawmakers’ efforts aimed at preparing young Texans for high-demand jobs this session. Gov. Greg Abbott’s emergency priority list includes a funding boost for career training programs in high school, from early college to partnerships in rural areas.

On Tuesday, the Senate Committee on Education K-16 advanced a bill that would increase funding to public schools for more students to receive job training and mentorship opportunities through Pathways in Technology Early College High Schools, or P-TECH programs.

To address needs in rural areas, the House on Wednesday passed a bill to fund rural workforce development programs.

“Without an intentional systemwide effort to increase credential attainment for our young people, we will not be able to adequately fill the jobs that are being created in North Texas. And we will not adequately be able to sustain the economic growth that we’re seeing in North Texas,” said Katrina Fraser, the Commit Partnership’s director of postsecondary education policy.

But time is running out for lawmakers to pass legislation as the session’s final day approaches on June 2. A $7.7 billion proposal for schools is set for a Senate hearing Thursday, a month after the House passed its version of the bill.

About 60% of jobs in Texas will require education beyond a high school diploma in five years; however, less than 40% of Texans earn a degree or credential within six years of graduating high school, according to state data. About a third of workers have skills for those jobs, according to the Texas Workforce Commission’s labor market data.

Some Texas districts, including Dallas ISD, offer P-TECH programs that allow students to earn college credit — and even an associates degree — while in high school. Public schools that do so could see their funding triple from $50 to $150 per student enrolled in P-TECH under House Bill 120, introduced by Rep. Keith Bell, R-Forney.

“This bill responds to Governor Greg Abbott’s emergency item to improve and expand career training programs for Texas high school students,” according to Bell’s March 6 Facebook post. “Our legislature must continue creating multiple pathways to career success!”

A statewide high school advising program would be established and overseen by the Texas Education Agency to work with districts’ advisers, according to the bill. The bill would limit each district adviser who is participating in the TEA program to work with no more than 200 students, prioritizing grades 11 and 12.

Education advocates say access to such advisers boost students’ chances for success and financial stability, but high student-to-counselor ratios and limited resources hinder that support.

The schools would partner directly with colleges, employers and local workforce boards to support students’ transitions to college or careers. TEA’s program would support system-level collaboration and adviser training.

Schools would also receive $40,000 per full-time adviser through a new allotment created by the bill. Additionally, a grant funding program created by the bill would give districts $50,000 for having junior ROTC programs.

Rural programs could partner with colleges and universities to provide students job training for regional workforce needs — such as agriculture, maintenance or transportation — through a new Rural Pathway Excellence Partnership.

Bolstering the workforce in rural Texas

Another effort aims to boost workforce development in rural areas through a separate grant funding program.

The Rural Workforce Training Grant Program would support job-specific training and related services in counties with populations under 200,000. The grant amount is still undetermined, according to the Legislative Budget Board.

Many rural residents live below the poverty level or are retired, according to an analysis of House Bill 2545, introduced by Rep. Stan Gerdes, R-Smithville. Rural communities across Texas are losing population to urban and suburban areas due to a lack of opportunity, education and competitive local wages, according to the analysis.

Rural Texas contributes more than $200 billion to the state economy through agriculture, energy and a space industry, according to the think tank Texas 2036. But such areas lack access to health care, postsecondary education and internet, according to the group.

“They just do not have the resources,” said Grace Atkins, a Texas 2036 policy advisor.

Sustaining Texas’ prosperity requires increased access to career training for rural Texas’ over 4.7 million residents and 900,000 K-12 students, which is a larger rural population than in other rural areas nationwide, according to Texas 2036.

The nonprofit organizations Texans for Fiscal Responsibility and Texas Policy Research oppose the bill because it creates a new state-run program that picks “winners and losers” through grants instead of creating policies to “reduce barriers, red-tape and taxes for rural businesses,” according to statements from the groups.

The Texas Workforce Commission would award grants to public, private or nonprofit organizations that provide on-the-job training, apprenticeships, workforce education courses and other related activities, according to the bill. Eligible groups would include business associations, political subdivisions, local workforce development boards and educational institutions.

The grants could be used for training materials, instructor fees, wraparound expenses, facility fees, outreach, mentoring and other costs, according to the bill.

This reporting is part of the Future of North Texas, a community-funded journalism initiative supported by the Commit Partnership, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, the Dallas Mavericks, the Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, the McCune-Losinger Family Fund, The Meadows Foundation, the Perot Foundation, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the University of Texas at Dallas. The News retains full editorial control of this coverage.

SAN ANTONIO – A Bexar County state senator filed a bill that would lower the interest rate for overdue child support payments.

Senate Bill 629 would drop the interest rate from 6% to 3%. The bill was filed by state Sen. Judith Zaffirini (D – Bexar County).

In an analysis, she said, in part, “lowering interest rates would make repayments more achievable, encouraging consistent payment behavior, especially among low-income earners.”

“We’ll get more payments because the payments are more affordable,” Zaffirini said during a committee meeting this session.

She’s gotten some support. Quentin Riser, an assistant professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison, spoke in favor of the bill.

“This is not about letting anyone off the hook,” Riser said. “It’s about making repayment possible.”

But this bill has had backlash. John Gabriel, a senior visiting judge, wrote a letter to Sen. Zaffirini’s office in opposition.

“I didn’t think it was good policy, so I wanted to let her know,” Gabriel said.

Gabriel said he did not get a response.

Steven Sinkin, an attorney who specializes in the collection of past-due child support for all ages, said he was shocked to read the bill.

“It’s lowering the consequence, lowering the incentive, lowering and the protection for the women and children of the state,” Sinkin said. “Who are we helping? It is really incomprehensible.”

One of Sinkin’s clients is Veronica Posada. She’s working to collect child support from the father of her children and from her own dad, who didn’t pay her mother for years. She’s able to do this because there aren’t time limits for this kind of collection in Texas.

“I can’t understand their logic,” Posada said, talking about the bill. “You have families out there like mine. For 25 years, we didn’t collect child support because he thought it wasn’t necessary.”

She’s not the only San Antonio mom with concerns.

Josie Schlather it’s “a burden to fight, and it’s a burden not to fight.”

“There’s no loan that you can get that‘s 3% and it’s principal first,” Schlather said. “I have a daughter, and I have sons who witness all of this behavior. When you have obligations, you meet them and you honor them and you don’t get away with something because you can.”

KSAT reached out to Zaffirini for an interview, but she was unable to accommodate before the deadline.

“The rationale for filing my Senate Bill 629 is twofold: Representatives of the Office of the Attorney General requested the change, and national data, particularly from Wisconsin, show it works,” Zaffirini said in a statement, in part. “By making repayment more realistic, my bill would help more Texas families receive the support they deserve.”

KSAT reached out to the AG‘s office. A spokesperson said, “the OAG provides assistance strictly as a resource to all legislators and at no time should this be viewed as supporting or opposing specific legislation on any matter.”

The companion bill of SB 629 is HB 4213. It passed through to the Senate with an amendment. Instead of the proposed 3% interest rate, it says “the interest rate determined under Section 304.003, Finance Code.” KSAT is told that’s a higher rate than 6%.

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