Kirby Smart details pros, cons of difficult strength of schedule in 12-team College Football Playoff race

With three games to go in the regular season, Georgia has played the toughest strength of schedule in the country, according to ESPN. The Bulldogs faced two teams ranked in the Top 15 of the College Football Playoff Top 25 rankings on the road in three games, and return home take on another this week.

Despite the tough nature of the schedule, Georgia fell to No. 12 in the latest CFP rankings – a decision that drew criticism from AD Josh Brooks. Kirby Smart also weighed in, comparing UGA’s situation to another sport.

Smart wondered if college football could see similar decisions to college basketball, which rewards strength of schedule with appearances in the NCAA Tournament. In the meantime, UGA is going to keep its focus on the opportunity ahead against Tennessee.

“It’s hard because I think teams that play really tough schedules, I think you always reward it,” Smart said on The Paul Finebaum Show. “It seems to me – this is an analogy that just hit me – in basketball, they always talk about this. They make a big deal about it, but there’s so many teams in the tournament. And the teams that play these tough schedules get rewarded for these really tough schedules. In our case, it seems to be just about wins.

“But we’re in a great situation here because we get to play and we get to go play tomorrow night. We get to play right here in our home schedule and Tennessee gets an opportunity to come play us. So there’s a lot of teams out there hoping this happens and that happens. We get to go play our game. That’s what we need to focus on.”

Kirby Smart: ‘You don’t know … how tough a situation it is’

Georgia won one of those road games against Top-15 teams when the Bulldogs went into DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium and knocked off then-No. 1 Texas. However, they fell to Alabama in the final minutes at Bryant-Denny Stadium and, just last week, lost to Ole Miss at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.

Kirby Smart knew Georgia would face a tall task with such a challenging stretch in the schedule. But he also pointed out something for people to consider when watching those games: the atmosphere. He pointed out the setting of those games and how the crowd plays a factor, saying that should also be in the discussion.

“We started this season knowing that it would be a different kind of season, when I got that schedule,” Smart said. “It was like, okay. We’ve got Clemson, and then we’ve got three Top-15 teams or Top-10 teams on the road, preseason, and you’re going, ‘Whoa.’ We knew it would be some adversity. We didn’t know at what point it would hit and those things. Our guys are built for that, and it’s been tough.

“These places you go play, nobody can really take into account – and that’s what kills me is as people watch and they’re viewers, they don’t know that environment unless they’re there. So unless you’ve been to Oxford, Tuscaloosa, Austin and sat in that seat – or, in our case, tomorrow in these stands – you just watched the game. You don’t know how loud it is, how tough a situation it is.”