Kirby Smart shares how 12-team College Football Playoff format changes perception of rankings

This is the first year of the College Football Playoff expanding to a 12-team format. With that change, Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart has already noticed some changes in how the rankings are perceived.

Smart explained that, in his mind, the major change is in how many teams you have to pay attention to at this point. After all, given the format, there are significantly more teams that still have a realistic path to the College Football Playoff at this point in the season.

“You’re going to look a little further down,” Kirby Smart said. “You would look at 12 last year and figure does the 12th team have a shot to get to the 4th? What’s got to happen for those teams to lose? Now, you’re looking at 20, you know, 21, 22, the automatic qualifier, who’s got the best shot, and how are they going to perceive these teams, and what’s going to change the perception? That’s all the talk out there.”

In the four-team CFP format, all the teams were at-large bids. That meant very few teams realistically could make the field by the time the initial CFP Selection Committee Rankings were released. Now, in the 12-team format, the top-five ranked conference championship will make the Playoff alongside seven at-large bids. That means more access to teams lower in the rankings.

With all that in consideration, Kirby Smart still isn’t paying overly close attention to the College Football Playoff rankings. There’s too much that can still change.

“I could care less because what is a quality win and a quality loss right now, they’ve been known to change their mind before it comes time,” Smart said. “And, you know, we’ve probably been a casualty of that probably more than anybody in the country, so I don’t put a lot of stake in it.”

The first College Football Playoff Selection Committee rankings of the 12-team era were released on Tuesday night. In them, Georgia was ranked third in the country. That’s behind two Big Ten schools in Oregon and Ohio State and makes Georgia the highest-ranked SEC school. Four unbeaten teams are ranked behind the Bulldogs.

For Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs, they’ll now have an opportunity to step forward again in the rankings, with a challenging game against Ole Miss on Saturday. Kickoff for that game is currently scheduled for 3:30 p.m. EST on November 9th.