Kirby Smart on Big Ten’s CFP dominance: ‘What are we doing wrong?’

ATHENS — Kirby Smart is not one for excuses, but current SEC football slates come with a reality that not even the ultra-accountable Georgia head coach could deny.

“Those two teams were beat up tonight,” Smart said after his Bulldogs defeated Alabama 28-7 to win their second straight SEC Championship Game.

“That was the ninth game of the year. We’re looking at next year having another game. … the coaches in our league are concerned about it, very concerned … .“

No doubt, five SEC teams made the 12-team College Football Playoff last season, but for a third consecutive year, the national title game lacked the league’s representation.

This after eight of the 12 teams that battled in the six national title games from 2017-2022 came from the SEC, including five of six national championship game winners.

It’s likely not a coincidence that NIL legislation and one-time transfer rules took hold during the 2021 offseason, just before Georgia became the most recent SEC team to win a national title with its undefeated 2022 campaign.

The SEC football coaches, athletic directors and league presidents will convene in Destin, Florida, next week at spring meetings looking for answers to the conference’s falloff in collegiate sports’ biggest revenue-producing sport.

The Big Ten — which by virtue of holding the richest television rights package has been well-positioned to capitalize on the NIL and transfer rule changes — recently trumpeted its success along with its support for a 24-team playoff at its spring meetings in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

Solving the puzzle

The Big Ten put the past three CFP trophies — won by Michigan, Ohio State and Indiana — on display at the meetings, per ESPN, lest anyone not take note of its championship dominance.

Smart, meanwhile, has had his coaches huddled in what Georgia players refer to as “The Lab,” looking for ways to ensure the Bulldogs are at their best when it matters most moving forward.

College football appears on the verge of expanding the playoffs at the same time the SEC is moving forward with a nine-game league schedule.

Smart has said before he embraces solving football “puzzles,” but his solution to surviving the regular season and thriving in the postseason remains in the works.

“When you start looking at the 12(-team playoff), and you’re like, two times we’ve lost the first (playoff) game, both times after winning the SEC championship,” Smart said during a recent podcast with analyst Josh Pate, “you have to start saying, ‘Are you peaking too early? Are you complacent?’ You look intrinsically saying, what are we doing wrong, and what can we do better?”

Backing off

NFL general managers and scouts have championed Georgia’s fast-paced football practices and developmental techniques, but with rosters now lacking experienced depth, Smart acknowledges there has been some give.

“We practice different now, we don’t practice as hard as we ever did, we cut back,” Smart said. “It’s the volume of games, and the number (of) quality of players we have is less — we’re not as good as we’ve been years past, but I don’t think anybody else is either.”

The health aspect of roster management has taken hold.

“You don’t actually get the work you used to get quality wise; you do more (noncontact) walkthroughs, you scale back things,” Smart said. “But you are trying to get a younger player — (that) you are paying more money — ready faster. There’s this dilemma … “

Smart’s not looking to reinvent the wheel, per se, as much as study it.

Quarterback is king

“You look at everybody else and say, ‘Who is the hottest team? Who is playing well, (and) who’s got this and that?” Smart said.

“The common denominator to me is there’s a lot of portal quarterbacks that have won or been in the final four.”

Former Georgia quarterback Carson Beck — an injury casualty of the 2024 SEC Championship Game that, in part, derailed the Bulldogs’ CFP appearance that season — helped lead Miami to the CFP championship game last season.

Fernando Mendoza, who was the CFP title game-winning quarterback and No. 1 NFL draft pick — had chosen Indiana over Georgia coming out of the transfer portal.

Smart has acknowledged the job Curt Cignetti did in building Indiana into a powerhouse the past two seasons with a scientific approach to talent acquisition and efficient practices.

“It’s going to be a great study, to see how that moves forward, because a lot of people are going to copy that model,” Smart said. “Do they have Fernando Mendoza?”

Peaking in the playoff

Smart is focusing on what he has at Georgia and how best to win in the playoffs after back-to-back CFP Sugar Bowl quarterfinal losses.

“There’s a lot of peaking and playing well (in the playoffs),” Smart said. “I don’t know if in our conference that you can take the approach of ‘let’s grow into it,’ because Game 1 sometimes, Game 3 in our league, Game 4, ... if you misstep you can be out.

“Texas last year, you get to the point where you can’t lose anymore, because of the way the committee bases things — they’re going to base (rankings) on losses, they’re not looking at the total body of work. They’re looking at the loss column.

“When you get near that number, you have to win, you better be peaking then or you’re not going to have a chance (to make the playoffs).”

Smart notes Georgia has been “bumped” out of four-team CFP fields after losses in SEC championship games, but now with a 12-team field — likely soon to grow to 16 or 24 — the importance of playing in or winning the SEC title game has been diminished.

“Now, it’s like, ‘We really just need to save up and be hot when we need to be hot,” Smart said. “We’ve been a better team in our weekly rhythm of having to play on a regular week than we have on the buildup (playoff first-round byes) for the last couple of times.”

No apologies

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said last week that he makes no apologies for the level of difficulty in the league.

Smart agrees and is hoping the conference will extend an open invitation for anyone who thinks differently.