Kirby Smart: Current December calendar is probably not the best thing for college football

The month of December has turned into a crazy time of year for college football coaches, particularly those playing in bowl games or in the College Football Playoff. Georgia head coach Kirby Smart was recently asked what it’s like trying to navigate everything in December.

In addition to preparing for the Sugar Bowl, Georgia has also been dealing with Signing Day, players leaving for the transfer portal and players interested in joining the Bulldogs program from the portal. Kirby Smart admitted that juggling everything has been difficult.

Get your team’s official College Football Playoff watch from AXIA by CLICKING HERE: “Watches that tell so much more than time”

“It’s becoming the new norm, you know. December is absolutely just tough,” Kirby Smart said. “I don’t know a good way of saying it. I wouldn’t say it’s unbearable. I wouldn’t say that it’s unfair. There’s a lot of words you could use for it. It’s just not probably the best thing for the college football game.”

Smart acknowledged that the current college football calendar is good for some. For instance, players are able to enter the portal and go ahead and start searching for a new home shortly after the regular season ends. And schools with needs can go ahead and start trying to build up their roster from the portal, too.

But overall, Smart doesn’t believe having so much happening at one time, while also trying to prepare for the CFP, is a good thing.

“Individually, you can make the case it’s good for some players, it’s good for some teams, it’s good for some coaches,” Kirby Smart said. “But the calendar’s really challenging. And if we have the solutions, I think somebody wise, somebody smart, would fix it.

“But when you intertwine all the working parts of academics, being a student athlete, and the timing of the playoff, timing of the portal, timing of Signing Day, it’s incredibly challenging. And it’s been that way this month.”

Kirby Smart and Georgia are set to take on Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1. The game will kick off at 8:45 p.m.

Georgia is the No. 2 seed in the playoff after beating Texas in the SEC Championship Game. Meanwhile Notre Dame is the 7 seed and advanced to the Sugar Bowl after pounding Indiana in the opening round of the CFP.