Georgia coach Kirby Smart made a clear statement when asked about the SEC moving to a nine-game schedule. He doesn't much care who he plays.
The SEC announced it will move to a nine-game conference schedule beginning with the 2026 season. Each team will face three permanent opponents and six rotating opponents on the schedule.
With that comes plenty of intrigue. The SEC has stated that it hopes to maintain as many traditional rivalries as possible, but balancing that objective with creating a fair and equitable schedule will be challenging.
For Georgia coach Kirby Smart, it really didn’t make a difference what the SEC did. He explained.
“No real shock one way or the other,” Smart said. “I had gone through the thoughts and processes and the outcomes that would come way back in Destin if it happened and if it didn’t happen. It was just a matter of a decision to come forward.”
Georgia will likely have Florida as one permanent rotating opponent, but what happens with the other two will be fascinating. Auburn and Tennessee are both traditional rivals. But will all three of those appear on the schedule as permanent fixtures?
Maybe not. The SEC has to weigh competitive balance against the desire to maintain rivalries.
Once again, Smart didn’t seem to mind whatever the SEC ends up choosing. He sound relatively flexible, knowing that one way or another you still have to go out there and play.
“As far as the balance of the three games or the preference of the three games, I don’t really have a preference on that,” Smart said. “I do think traditional rivalries are important. I enjoy those. Having been a traditionalist and grew up in the state of Georgia. But I don’t know one way or the other. You’ve got to win the games you play, man.”
The SEC will have its detractors almost no matter what. It’s simply an impossible task to please every fanbase while working within the constraints of the new scheduling format.
Still, Smart doesn’t seem to care much. He didn’t waste a whole lot of time thinking about the ramifications of the new schedule format when it dropped. What’s the point?
“To be honest with you, when it came forward I’ve been so into Marshall; it has no effect on this year,” Smart said. “I don’t think people really understand coaches, the way they work is your focused on what’s important now. Like what are we dealing with now. That is not of importance to me right now. There’s no, I don’t have any control over the outcome of it.”
So Georgia will move forward, awaiting whatever the SEC decides. The league is expected to reveal the permanent pairings in December, so first there’s plenty of football to be played.
Category: General Sports
