{"id":878217,"date":"2026-04-29T23:51:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T23:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/878217\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T23:51:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T23:51:15","slug":"kirby-smart-addresses-potential-loss-of-sec-title-game-amid-cfp-expansion-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/878217\/","title":{"rendered":"Kirby Smart addresses potential loss of SEC title game amid CFP expansion talks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Often lost within the ongoing debate about the future expansion of the College Football Playoff is what it could mean for conference championship games. In fact, that\u2019s one of the SEC\u2019s biggest issues<\/a> with its opposition to the Big Ten\u2019s 24-team proposal that has been gaining national traction in recent months.<\/p>\n

The SEC Championship game has long been considered one of the league\u2019s prized gems ever since the brainchild of former commissioner Roy Kramer came to fruition in 1992. It also represents one of the SEC\u2019s biggest money-making efforts, annually generating about $50 million for the conference through its television deal with ESPN, ticket sales, and sponsorships. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s one of several reasons current SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has maintained his vocal opposition<\/a> to the Big Ten\u2019s 24-team Playoff model and remains supportive of a 16-team field instead. Despite that resistance from the top, several SEC football coaches and administrators have voiced their support for both the 24-team format and potentially ending the conference title game.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Alabama<\/a>\u00a0athletics director\u00a0Greg Byrne\u00a0told\u00a0USA Today<\/a>\u00a0the game has \u201crun its course<\/a>\u201d in the current landscape and expects it to go away if the College Football Playoff expands: \u201cIt\u2019s a great event,\u201d Byrne said. \u201cI don\u2019t like the idea of it going away, but I think it\u2019s reality, with an expanded playoff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Georgia<\/a>\u2018s Kirby Smart<\/a>, who has more experience in the SEC Championship game than all the other current league head coaches combined, remains a fan of the game itself, while also acknowledging its end could be nigh. Especially if the Playoff goes to 24 teams.<\/p>\n

Kirby Smart: \u2018I think I could find a way to support\u2019 ending SEC Championship game<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m an enthusiast, I love the game, (but) if we can get the season over and the national championship done earlier by way of removing that game, I think I could find a way to support that,\u201d Smart said Wednesday afternoon during an appearance on The Paul Finebaum Show at the Regions Tradition Pro-Am in Birmingham. \u201cBut you also just had Greg Sankey up here, and he\u2019d argue that game funds and puts a lot of money into our programs. So you\u2019re turning down money in an era where money is tight in a lot of the athletic departments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smart\u2019s Bulldogs have become an annual mainstay in the SEC Championship game, having won two straight SEC titles and three of the last four. That\u2019s in addition to appearing inside Atlanta\u2019s Mercedes-Benz Stadium eight times across Smart\u2019s 10 years in Athens, including the past five in a row.<\/p>\n

And while the end of the SEC title game could be a hard pill to swallow for diehard SEC fans, Smart made it clear such a move wouldn\u2019t be the end of the world for the league. In fact, as the Georgia coach and alum pointed out, the SEC got by just fine without it for the first six decades of the league\u2019s existence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, there will be a regular-season champion the way I understand it, and I think back in the day they had co-champions,\u201d Smart joked with longtime SEC radio host. \u201c\u2026 And there\u2019s some merit (to having) co-champions. Teams can argue they\u2019re both champions (because) they didn\u2019t play each other and both have the same record, but there would still be a SEC champion crowned.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Often lost within the ongoing debate about the future expansion of the College Football Playoff is what it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":878218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,11741,49,48],"class_list":["post-878217","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"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116490684600440931","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/878218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}