Kirby Smart bemoans bowl game opt outs: 'They need to fix this'

Saturday afternoon at the Orange Bowl in Miami was not pretty. Georgia completely took Florida State apart, earning the biggest win in bowl history, 63-3. From the get-go, the Bulldogs were the better team and it lasted all four quarters, no matter who was in the game.

Both teams would honestly tell you they would rather be in the College Football Playoff. Playing in the Orange Bowl is a nice way to end a season but winning a championship is the ultimate goal. Florida State, in particular, felt hard done.

Even so, Georgia players decided they wanted to go out there a finish the 2023 season. Florida State had a ton of key players opt out, preparing for the NFL Draft. It made the talent discrepancy quite noticeable, to the point where Kirby Smart called for change.

“People need to look what happened tonight and they need to fix this,” Smart said. “Everybody is saying we had our guys and they didn’t have their guys. I can listen to all of that. But college football has got to decide what they want. I know things and changing and things are going to change next year. There are still going to be bowl games outside of [the CFP].

“People got to decide what they want and what they want to get out of it. It’s really unfortunate for those kids on that sideline that they had to play that game that didn’t have their full arsenal. It affected the game, 100%.”

Smart is correct about the College Football Playoff affecting the higher-level bowl games. This time next season, the Orange Bowl will be for a spot in the CFP semifinals. Florida State would have had all healthy players available and ready to compete.

Would Georgia still have won the game? Most people would likely say yes given Jordan Travis’ injury earlier in the season. But would it have been a blowout from start to finish, ending in a 60-point difference? Probably not.

On the other side, there have been examples of players choosing to play in bowl games and suffering a long-term injury. Former Notre Dame linebacker Jaylon Smith is the best example. Projected to be a top-five pick heading into the Fiesta Bowl vs. Ohio State, he suffered a leg injury and completely changed his NFL career.

Either way, Smart feels like change is needed. Sure, he is happy to get a 60-point win to cap off what was a good 2023 season for Georgia. Smart still feels bad for what the Florida State players had to go through.