Kirby Smart fixated on Alabama, not CFP possibilities: 'I want to focus on what we have to do to win this game'

The possibility of the SEC being left out of the College Football Playoff in the event that No. 1 Georgia loses to No. 8 Alabama is a legitimate one, albeit unlikely. But Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart isn’t worrying about any playoff potentialities at this point.

With a tall task of toppling Alabama to win an SEC crown still ahead, Smart is keeping his focus on the task at hand. Even when asked directly about the possibility of missing the CFP, Smart demurred.

“As far as your other question, I really don’t want to get into. I want to focus on what we have to do to win this game,” Smart said.

Georgia won its last matchup against Alabama, a victory in the national championship game in January 2022. But prior to that, the Crimson Tide had been on a long run of wins over the Bulldogs, including a win in the 2021 SEC Championship Game.

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey is confident the SEC will be in

Sankey projected confidence that the league will not be left out of the four-team College Football Playoff field, no matter the result. In the nine CFPs to date, the SEC has had at least one team in the field.

Given that historical backdrop, and the resumes of the two teams that could make the field, Sankey remained assured the league he oversees will, once again, be represented in the playoff field. Sankey, speaking on a teleconference with reporters on Thursday, also highlighted the SEC success within the CFP, too.

“I’ll also point candidly, John, to the realities when the SEC teams have entered the College Football Playoff format, our success is unparalleled. It’s envied by everyone else. We’ve lost in the semifinal once to a non-conference team, to a non-conference team twice in the championship game. The only other losses we’ve experienced are to ourselves. That’s — the entirety of our record is the basis for the assurance that we will have a team in the CFP for the 10th consecutive year,” Sankey said.

The basis for excluding the SEC from the playoff — an idea that many around college football have begun to grapple with in recent weeks — stems from a number of factors. The main issue is the SEC simply didn’t perform particularly well in the non-conference slate, meaning the basis for considering the league the best of all of the others in the country took a hit. And more granularly within that, Alabama lost a game in September to No. 7 Texas.

Were Alabama to upset Georgia and Texas wins the Big 12, it’s possible both SEC teams get boxed out of the field by Texas — other results around the country would also play a major role.

And of course, a Georgia win would render the entire discussion meaningless as the 13-0 and conference champion Bulldogs would be guaranteed to make the field.

But Sankey isn’t concerning himself with the possibility of exclusion should Alabama win and make the exercise much closer. When asked plainly, he said he expects the league to get at least one team in.

“I do. I think people would expect me to answer that I do. The overall rigor of our schedule, just starting with some simple facts: There are three teams currently ranked in the Top 10 with three or more wins over Top 25 teams as the rankings currently exist. Two of those teams are Georgia and Alabama. Obviously Georgia’s distinguished itself the last two years as the national champion, is undefeated to this point. We have a one-loss Alabama team that has continued to improve, has won some significant games and has won games by significant scores and has won some close games. I think the rigor of this schedule within the SEC has been recognized over time. Not a secret that we didn’t have the non-conference success across the board that we’ve become accustomed to, yet I think the level of football here is still the highest that could be played,” Sankey said.