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While Alabama wants to get rid of the SEC Championship Game after last season’s 24-7 loss to Georgia, which almost knocked the Crimson Tide out of the College Football Playoff, Bulldogs’ coach Kirby Smart doesn’t exactly see things the same way.
Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne drew the ire of fans everywhere recently when he suggested that the game no longer be played.
“I think the ship has sailed. It’s run its course,” Byrne said. “It’s a great event. I don’t like the idea of it going away, but I think it’s reality, with an expanded playoff.”
Byrne also suggested that the idea should go hand-in-hand with adding even more teams to the College Football Playoff, something many fans have balked at in the past.
“If you’re going to a 16-team playoff, you’re adding more games,” he said. “I would imagine it would be pretty good content.”
But in a recent interview with Chris Low of On3, Smart presented a different view of things.
Kirby Smart Believes Winning The SEC Championship Game Is A Point Of Pride
Smart has set high standards at Georgia, winning back-to-back national championships in 2022 and 2023. But he doesn’t view recent seasons, which ended without a national title, as a failure.
That’s due in large part to the fact that the Bulldogs have won the last two SEC championships.
“I will never apologize for winning an SEC title. I think it’s the hardest thing to do in sports, to win the SEC title in almost any sport,” Smart told Low. “Our conference is so hard, and when we went to 16 teams, and it made it harder.’
Ideally, that would be the way that every coach and administrator in the SEC sees the conference championship game. After all, the conference’s slogan is “It just means more.”
If that’s true, it should mean a whole lot to play in and win the SEC Championship Game.
Whether he meant it or not, Smart’s comments come across as a strong shot fired at Byrne and Alabama, who seem to have no interest in competing for an SEC championship in the future.