Kirby Smart would love to expand the College Football Playoffs

While college football is about to kick off its second season in the 12-team era of the College Football Playoff, a debate over the field’s future format is underway. Much of the offseason news surrounding it seemed to suggest it’d expand to 14 or 16 teams. The only thing stopping that from happening was seemingly disagreements over the format of automatic qualifiers.

Things took a turn on Saturday as Ross Dellenger of YahooSports reported that Big Ten executives are exploring the idea of a 24 or 28-team format. This would bring dramatic change to the sport as the number of teams in the field doubles, and conference championships go away.

Despite the dramatic changes these formats would bring, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart revealed he’d be in favor.

“I would love to be able to expand the playoffs if it’s done the right way in terms of giving more teams opportunity,” Smart said. “I think that’s what fan bases want.”

Smart points to “mid-tier bowl games” as justification for why expanding the field makes sense. That is despite describing his overall experience in those bowl games as “great.”

“I think those bowl games are great experiences. I played in them, I’ve coached in them, I love them, that’s an opportunity,” Smart said. “But the more teams you give an opportunity to decide things on the field. … So yeah, I’d be for that.”

Per Dellenger, the SEC and Big Ten would earn seven automatic qualifiers each in these formats. Meanwhile, the ACC and Big-12 get five each, leaving just two for the group of six and two at-large bids. It is the “7-7-5-5-2-2” model.

Then could come the cancellation of conference title games. Playing for an SEC Championship – something Georgia has done seven times under Smart – would be no more.

“I love the championship games. Can you have your cake and eat it too? Can you move the season up, start it, get it done,” Smart said. “If you can’t and you can only have one of those two, I don’t know which one I would pick because it would probably depend on the format.”

The current 12-team format is in place through the 2026 season. However, everything after that is still up in the air.