Kirby Smart addresses potential loss of SEC title game amid CFP expansion talks

Often lost within the ongoing debate about the future expansion of the College Football Playoff is what it could mean for conference championship games. In fact, that’s one of the SEC’s biggest issues with its opposition to the Big Ten’s 24-team proposal that has been gaining national traction in recent months.

The SEC Championship game has long been considered one of the league’s prized gems ever since the brainchild of former commissioner Roy Kramer came to fruition in 1992. It also represents one of the SEC’s biggest money-making efforts, annually generating about $50 million for the conference through its television deal with ESPN, ticket sales, and sponsorships.

It’s one of several reasons current SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has maintained his vocal opposition to the Big Ten’s 24-team Playoff model and remains supportive of a 16-team field instead. Despite that resistance from the top, several SEC football coaches and administrators have voiced their support for both the 24-team format and potentially ending the conference title game.

Earlier this month, Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne told USA Today the game has “run its course” in the current landscape and expects it to go away if the College Football Playoff expands: “It’s a great event,” Byrne said. “I don’t like the idea of it going away, but I think it’s reality, with an expanded playoff.”

Georgia‘s Kirby Smart, who has more experience in the SEC Championship game than all the other current league head coaches combined, remains a fan of the game itself, while also acknowledging its end could be nigh. Especially if the Playoff goes to 24 teams.

Kirby Smart: ‘I think I could find a way to support’ ending SEC Championship game

“I’m an enthusiast, I love the game, (but) if we can get the season over and the national championship done earlier by way of removing that game, I think I could find a way to support that,” Smart said Wednesday afternoon during an appearance on The Paul Finebaum Show at the Regions Tradition Pro-Am in Birmingham. “But you also just had Greg Sankey up here, and he’d argue that game funds and puts a lot of money into our programs. So you’re turning down money in an era where money is tight in a lot of the athletic departments.”

Smart’s Bulldogs have become an annual mainstay in the SEC Championship game, having won two straight SEC titles and three of the last four. That’s in addition to appearing inside Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium eight times across Smart’s 10 years in Athens, including the past five in a row.

And while the end of the SEC title game could be a hard pill to swallow for diehard SEC fans, Smart made it clear such a move wouldn’t be the end of the world for the league. In fact, as the Georgia coach and alum pointed out, the SEC got by just fine without it for the first six decades of the league’s existence.

“Well, there will be a regular-season champion the way I understand it, and I think back in the day they had co-champions,” Smart joked with longtime SEC radio host. “… And there’s some merit (to having) co-champions. Teams can argue they’re both champions (because) they didn’t play each other and both have the same record, but there would still be a SEC champion crowned.”