Kirby Smart criticizes the college football playoff system in light of Georgia’s loss to Alabama

Georgia HC Kirby Smart criticized the College Playoff Committee's method of selecting the four best teams in CFB.

Kirby Smart criticizes the college football playoff system in light of Georgia’s loss to Alabama

Kirby Smart (via AP)

Last night’s SEC Championship game was painful for the Georgia Bulldogs as they were served defeat at the hands of Nick Saban and Alabama. Apart from the agony of losing a championship game, the Bulldogs lost their 29-game winning streak in the 27-24 loss. Head coach for the Bulldogs, Kirby Smart had some words for the College Football Playoff selection committee regarding the existing playoff system.

Kirby Smart believes that his team is elite and without a shadow of a doubt belongs amongst the top four teams in all of college football. Here’s what Smart said after the loss:

Bill Hancock said, 'It's not the most deserving. He said, simply, 'it's the best four teams.' So you're going to tell me somebody's sitting in the committee room and doesn't think that the Georgia team is not one of the best four teams?

Smart did not mince his words while addressing the existing playoff system.

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The Bulldogs had a bad night and lost to Alabama, but the head coach does not believe that this alone should disqualify them from being ranked amongst the top 4 teams in the college football playoffs. Smart stated that if any of the members of the committee do not believe that the Bulldogs are worthy of being ranked then they have no idea of what they are talking about.

Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs have gone unbeaten in the last two seasons

HC Smart was taking a shot at the College Football Playoff committee’s executive director’s comments on Tuesday when he brushed aside the notion that the selection committee’s job was to choose the four most deserving teams rather than the four best.

Kirby Smart
Kirby Smart (via SI)

Bill Hancock said this on Tuesday:

Most deserving is not anything in the committee's lexicon. They are to rank the best teams in order, and that's what they do. Just keep that word in mind: best teams.

This gives rise to an interesting debate, should deserving teams be ranked amongst the top four teams or should the best teams be ranked? An argument can be made that if a team is amongst the best then that definitely means that it deserves to be ranked amongst the top but what about teams that do deserve to be up there but due to one or two losses are out of contention?

Kirby Smart stated that NFL scouts would agree with him:

Not that history says anything, but when you talk about the four best teams, watch the game. Go ask NFL talent evaluators. Go ask NFL scouts. It's about the best teams, and I have no question that it's not one of the four best teams, like 100%.

He further addressed the matter from the perspective of the athletes themselves.

While Kirby Smart does have a fair point that the fate of the teams is left to a committee that sits and determines who the four best teams in college football are, however, that has been the norm for years and just because he is in a losing position this year, there aren’t any exceptions that will be made.

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