Kirby Smart Sees the Benefits of a 12-Team Playoff

Christian Goeckel | Mar 31, 2024

Nov 25, 2023; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart walks on the field. / Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

College football has changed a lot since Kirby Smart took over in Athens. Few in the sport have been able to adapt and flourish the way Smart has.

Survival is all about evolving. That's true in life and in sports. In college football, the need to be fluid has become paramount in the ever-changing landscape of the sport. For almost a century the championship of the sport was decided by two teams in the postseason. Then came the four-team playoff in 2014. Now, in 2024, it will evolve again, this time expanding to 12 teams.

In between that, we've seen NIL and the transfer portal introduced, completely flipping the landscape of college athletics on its ear. In other words, we've seen more change in 10 years than we had in the previous 100.

For Georgia head coach Kirby Smart, the changes have been a part of his tenure as head coach for the Bulldogs. Smart has been forced to evolve as he's brought Georgia to the pinnacle of the sport. If Georgia is to stay there, he will have to continue to push the program forward. In a recent interview with ESPN's Chris Low, Smart emphasized the positive impacts of the upcoming 12-team playoff.

"It keeps your hopes alive with one loss, maybe two," said Smart. "A lot of coaches have complained that once they lost a game, their kids just said that they were done. There won't be as much of that. Everybody's fighting for the same thing, and that's the beauty of making those last three or four weeks really, really eventful."

Smart makes a good point. The fear that an expanded playoff would devalue college football's regular season hasn't carried any weight over the past 10 years. If anything, it's kept more fanbases engaged later into the season.

"I know some people say, 'It devalues the late-season games because you'll know you're in.' Well, there will be more people in the hunt now," continued Smart. "So there will be a lot of meaningful games. That team with two losses late in the year that has played a tough schedule is going to be fighting and scratching to earn that 12th spot."

For Georgia, a team that plays at Texas, Alabama, Kentucky, and Mississippi this season, a little room for error may be needed. Then again, the Bulldogs are 43-2 over the last three seasons, so Longhorns, Crimson Tide, Wildcats, and Rebels may the ones who are thankful for the expanded playoff field.

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