Don’t worry — Kirby Smart is just as baffled as the rest of us when it comes to figuring out what the College Football Playoff Committee actually values.
And let’s not pretend the CFP Committee has ever been the bastion of objectivity people expect. Expanding the playoff hasn’t made the process any less flawed — just ask Florida State.
Following No. 12 Georgia’s 31-17 win over No. 7 Tennessee on Saturday in Athens, ESPN’s Laura Rutledge asked Smart what he thought his team showed the Committee. Based on this past week’s CFP rankings, Georgia would be on the outside looking in, effectively behind Ole Miss and Alabama, which it lost head-to-head.
Saturday’s win might change that.
But Smart isn’t convinced.
“Well, I don’t know,” Smart said, “because I don’t know what they look for. I really don’t know what they look for anymore.”
Well, neither do we.
Trying to rank Georgia, Tennessee, Ole Miss, and Alabama in a way that makes everyone happy is a thankless task. Ole Miss and Alabama dealt Georgia its two losses, and even though Tennessee fell at Sanford Stadium, it’s not as simple as shuffling Georgia up and Tennessee down. Alabama can’t be ranked above Tennessee, and Georgia can’t leapfrog Alabama.
Sure, you could rearrange the rankings, but it would lead to a fresh wave of disastrous discourse.
Which everyone is already well-prepared for.
The case for a three-loss SEC team, which Heather Dinich tried to make earlier this week, might be out the window, but the chaos is far from over. Maybe all the four aforementioned teams will eventually get in, but don’t be surprised if it ends with a two-loss SEC team in the playoff while a one-loss Indiana watches from home.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.