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Kirby Smart ranks TCU ahead of Ohio State, Tennessee ahead of Alabama in final coaches poll

On3 imageby:Dan Morrison•01/11/23•

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Kirby Smart
Kevin C. Cox / Staff PhotoG/Getty

The final votes have been counted for the coaches poll. That means that we now know what each coach thought of opposing teams, including Georgia’s Kirby Smart.

Looking at Smart’s ballot, there are a few things that jump out right away. The first is that he maintained TCU as the second-best team in the country. It would have been easy to flip the Horned Frogs with Ohio State, given how Georgia’s games against each team went in the College Football Playoff.

On top of that, Kirby Smart also kept Michigan ahead of Ohio State. This is likely because of their head-to-head meeting and not each team’s performance in the CFP. However, it’s worth pointing out that Smart kept the Playoff teams as his top four.

Also of note was Smart’s decision to rank Tennessee fifth and Alabama sixth. After Hendon Hooker’s injury and the loss to South Carolina, a lot of the hype around Tennessee died down. However, despite also losing two games including a head-to-head with the Volunteers, the Crimson Tide were still in the CFP discussion.

Once again, though, for Smart, it appears that head-to-head games matter.

Kirby Smart’s top 25

Here is Kirby Smart’s final top 25 vote in the coaches poll:

  1. Georgia
  2. TCU
  3. Michigan
  4. Georgia
  5. Tennessee
  6. Alabama
  7. Penn State
  8. USC
  9. Utah
  10. Washington
  11. Kansas State
  12. LSU
  13. Clemson
  14. Oregon State
  15. Oregon
  16. Tulane
  17. Notre Dame
  18. Florida State
  19. UCLA
  20. Texas
  21. South Carolina
  22. Mississippi State
  23. Troy
  24. UTSA
  25. Pitt

Georgia-TCU was the least viewed championship game in BCS/CFP history

After one of the best semifinals ever, which saw both the Fiesta Bowl and the Peach Bowl bring in excellent viewership, the national championship game was a blowout. An ugly massacre was countered by the worst viewership numbers for a championship game in either the BCS or College Football Playoff era.

According to Stewart Mandel of The Athletic, only 17.2 million people watched the game. That’s millions of viewers less than either semifinal game, which had 21.7 and 22.4 million viewers respectively.