Kirby Smart debates pros, cons of 24-team College Football Playoff field

As college football power brokers continue to debate potential College Football Playoff expansion, several prominent head coaches have taken definitive stands on the two leading proposals. There even appears to be some national “coalescing” around the Big Ten’s 24-team format, with the SEC representing the lone holdout at the current time.

But while SEC commissioner Greg Sankey remains steadfast in the league’s support of a 16-team field, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart has mostly avoided taking a strong stance on either format. Instead, Smart told On3’s Chris Low he’s in favor of expanding the current 12-team field while also acknowledging the potential transformative impact of the Big Ten’s 24-team proposal, which likely means the end of conference championship games.

“I’d split it right down the middle, and most coaches are going to say more is better than less,” Smart told On3 last month. “But I can live with either one of those two. I don’t think there’s a huge difference.”

But after back-to-back one-and-done CFP quarterfinal exits the past two seasons, Smart understands the inherent benefit of adding more teams to the field, especially in an era when coaches and teams are increasingly judged by their involvement in the Playoffs. Smart doubled down on that point during a recent conversation with college football expert Josh Pate, a staunch opponent of broader Playoff expansion just three years into the current 12-team format, especially given the potential harmful impact on the regular season.

Miami’s participation in last season’s CFP national championship game as the No. 10 seed — marking the first double-digit seed in the title game — is a significant argument in favor of Playoff expansion. Of course, the Hurricanes — which lost two 2025 regular-season games to unranked Louisville and SMU — also represent why Playoff opponents like Pate are worried the regular season could become irrelevant.

“I agree with all that, I just don’t know where that line of demarcation is. … I do feel like we’re going to make some of our (regular season) games maybe less meaningful, less impactful, but they’ll still matter in the grand scheme of things, especially toward the end of the season,” Smart told Pate. “I’m a fan of 16 to 24 because of the currency and what we’re measured by as coaches. I want to get my team in there for the opportunity. I want my fan base to be engaged. And it’s gotten to the point now that if you’re not in (the CFP), there’s no value in a good old bowl game. … So if we’re going to make it that way, we might as well put more (teams) in it and get everybody in and let them go play.”