{"id":355438,"date":"2025-12-18T04:32:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T04:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/355438\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T04:32:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T04:32:07","slug":"kirby-smart-predicts-9-game-schedule-could-cost-sec-a-spot-in-college-football-playoff-without-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/355438\/","title":{"rendered":"Kirby Smart predicts 9-game schedule could cost SEC a spot in College Football Playoff without expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"

After years of debate and discussion, the SEC is moving to a nine-game conference schedule starting in 2026. But Georgia<\/a> coach Kirby Smart<\/a> expressed concern for how the shift will impact the league\u2019s College Football Playoff<\/a> hopes.<\/p>\n

Smart predicted the SEC could miss out on a spot in the CFP by adding another conference game. One of the arguments against the move is the fact an extra game adds another loss for half the league, and Smart said that could be important come selection day.<\/p>\n

However, there\u2019s talk of expanding the CFP to 16 teams. But if the bracket stays at 12 teams, as currently constructed, Smart said the new schedule could impact the SEC\u2019s path.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne more loss,\u201d Smart told David Pollack on his See Ball Get Ball<\/a> podcast about the nine-game schedule. \u201cI think it\u2019s going to end up affecting, unless we increase the playoffs. But if we don\u2019t increase the playoffs, it\u2019s going to cost us probably a playoff spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under the new SEC schedule model, conference teams will play nine conference games. In addition, the league will continue to require one non-conference game against either a Power 4 program or Notre Dame<\/a>. Teams will have three annual opponents and six rotating opponents. Annual opponents will be evaluated every four years, and every team will face the remaining 12 teams once in a two-year span.<\/p>\n

Kirby Smart: Coaches \u2018concerned\u2019 about player health<\/p>\n

The College Football Playoff was a key part of the conversations about adding a game to the SEC schedule, commissioner Greg Sankey said. The change went through after the CFP announced a new metric to help with record strength during strength-of-schedule discussions.<\/p>\n

But Kirby Smart also has another concern about the extra SEC game as part of the new-look slate. He expressed worry about players\u2019 health<\/a> with the additional matchup. He used this year\u2019s Georgia team as an example following the SEC Championship against Alabama<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose two teams were beat up tonight and that was the ninth game of the year, and we\u2019re looking at next year having another game,\u201d Smart said. \u201cThe coaches in our league are concerned about it \u2014 very concerned about it \u2014 and I wouldn\u2019t be doing my job if I didn\u2019t speak my piece and say that it\u2019s concerning.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut hypothetically, every (SEC) team just played another game in their ninth (conference) game, so there\u2019s eight more losses. Who just dropped out? Then there\u2019s another game (with) the SEC Championship. It\u2019s tough, it was physical out there tonight, and they were wounded, we were wounded. \u2026 We were without multiple guys (that were) just beat up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After years of debate and discussion, the SEC is moving to a nine-game conference schedule starting in 2026.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,129371,398,396,397,99],"class_list":["post-355438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-kirby-smart-95-bainbridge","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}