There was perhaps no better year to demonstrate the need for an expanded College Football Playoff than 2023, which saw both the Georgia Bulldogs (12-1) and the Florida State Seminoles (13-0) miss the national title tournament. But Georgia head coach Kirby Smart doesn’t believe that there was as much of a miscarriage of justice as many others do.
Speaking to reporters at the SEC Meetings, Smart admitted that he wasn’t at all surprised that Georgia missed the College Football Playoff after losing in the SEC Championship Game at the hands of Alabama last year. He said that the Bulldogs had their chance and can’t cry over not making the best of it.
“No, not surprised at all,” Smart said. “We had our opportunity on the field. That’s what you can ask for, not cry over it. I think we had a good football team.”
Georgia wound up annihilating FSU in the Orange Bowl and were ranked No. 4 in the AP postseason poll. But when asked if he felt he had a top-four team, Smart dismissed the question.
“I don’t know, not for me to decide,” Smart said. “We didn’t get to play the others.”
There’s a good chance that 2023 will be the last time for a while that the Bulldogs miss the College Football Playoff with a one-loss record (something that has happened three times in his career). The expanded playoff to 12 teams will give the Bulldogs just a little bit of room for error that they previously never had.