Kirby Smart speaks on expanded College Football Playoff for first time
Whether you like it or not, the College Football Playoff is set to expand. ESPN’s Pete Thamel broke the news about it last week and Georgia head coach Kirby Smart had his first real chance to comment on it Monday.
The seventh-year head coach was asked whether or not he believes that the expanded playoff field will be good for his Georgia team. He gave an answer with some significant nuance.
“I don’t know how it affects Georgia personally,” Smart said on Monday. “I think… I’m hesitant to say I supported it. I wouldn’t say that I’m clearly in one camp over the other. I think there’s some good and bad to both and I don’t think we know the repercussions of going to 12 over four. There’s been some good things about four. There’ll probably be some good things about 12. It’s just everybody loves change and it’s on a continuum.”
The four-team field as been pretty good to Georgia. Twice it has gotten in as the No. 3 team, twice it has advanced to the National Championship game. The Bulldogs lost to Alabama in the 2018 College Football Playoff by a score of 26-23 in overtime. Georgia got another crack at it in 2022 and topped the Crimson Tide 33-18.
But the argument can be made that a 12-team field since Smart was hired at UGA in 2016 would have seen his team play in even more meaningful games. After a loss to Alabama in the 2018 SEC Championship game, the Bulldogs were barely left out of the four team field despite that being their second defeat of the season.
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UGA lost a fourth-quarter lead in that loss to Alabama and Smart openly campaigned for his team to make the four-team field once it was over. He felt his team was worthy of a bid because of how it stood toe-to-toe with a team that was unquestionably College Football’s best during the regular season. The Crimson Tide, due in some part to an injury to starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, fell to Clemson in the National Championship that season.
Georgia might have gotten in again in 2019 despite being throttled by LSU in the SEC Championship game. The Bulldogs would have definitely made an expanded playoff field that season had it avoided a regular-season hiccup at home against South Carolina. An expanded field figures to benefit the SEC as much as any other conference, but if Smart agrees with that, he isn’t saying.
“So it’s like somebody is going to be complaining with something about 12,” Smart said. “I don’t really get into whether or not it’s going to be beneficial for us or not because I think it’s year to year on what kind of team you have and what other teams do in the country.”
