Kirby Smart on conference championships: 'I believe in them, but as the Playoff expands, it's gonna be hard'

As the second edition of the 12-team College Football Playoff approaches, the debate around the importance of Conference Championship games has rapidly heated up.

This comes after Alabama suffered its third loss of the season in the SEC Championship Game, but couldn’t be punished due to the fact that it did in fact make its conference championship game. Bubble teams that were left out of the Playoff, such as Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Texas, and BYU, certainly used the three-loss argument to claim that Alabama shouldn’t make the Playoff. Without a conference title game however, the Crimson Tide would have had just had two losses.

The same goes for BYU, which entered the Big 12 Championship Game against Texas Tech with just one loss (to Texas Tech earlier in the season). Without having to play the Red Raiders again, BYU would have had a strong at-large resume with an 11-1 record. At 11-2 however, they were slotted down to No. 12 below Notre Dame, who did not play in a conference title game.

Kirby Smart claims ‘it’s gonna be hard’ to keep Conference Championship games

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart joined David Pollack on the latest edition of the ‘See Ball Get Ball with David Pollack‘ podcast to discuss whether or not there should still be Conference Championship games. Smart’s Bulldogs just won their second consecutive SEC crown by downing Alabama 28-7 in Atlanta.

“That’s a tough one,” Smart said. “I was just talking about that. It’s one of those, kind of, to each his own. I enjoy them and believe in them, but as the Playoff expands, it’s gonna be hard. I just don’t know how they’re going to continue to do that, and they really need to move the calendar up. That would move the championship games out completely if that happens.”

“You have nine games and that? Because really now, you’re talking about 10 games because you’re gonna play nine and then you’ve got the 10th for the Conference Championship. I think about the teams that didn’t play that week. I talked to a lot of them and they were like ‘we were working on the Portal and re-signing our players. We were getting healthy for the Playoffs.’ And I’m going man, we’re playing for an SEC Championship, which is something nobody will ever be able to take away from us. But, there’s an opportunity lost and cost on that.”

While Conference Championship games are important for conference pride and bragging rights, they will be used to damage the resumes of teams that actually earned the right to play in them. With every single College Football Playoff spot being so coveted, the future of such games could be in serious peril.