Kirby smart on the future of college football
Kirby Smart urged the leaders to prioritize the future of the game on the individual or conference agenda in the playoff talks.
Miramar Beach, Fla. – SEC officials arrived here this week with the target of zero in the schedule format for football for 2026 and beyond. And they will probably leave here on Thursday without approving a format.
Two factors continue to keep a vote on a schedule format.
A: There is no consensus behind a model. Some stakeholders want to live in eight matches. Others want to go to nine. Generally, SEC coaches are mostly interested in living in eight, while the athletic directors of the conference leave the door which torn slightly towards nine. But, even within those groups, there is no consensus.
Brian Kelly of LSU said that he would favor nine conferences sports. Arcance‘Sam Pittman likes eight.
Texas Athletic Director Chris del Cost would prefer Nine, but he admitted that he does not speak for the room.
SEC Commissioner Greg Sanki is in favor of nine, but does not get votes, only a voice.
Ping-pong goes back and forth.
Other elements are delaying the vote? SEC is not against a difficult time frame. The 2025 schedule of the conference is set, and it retains some runways to take out the 2026 decision. Between the epidemic in 2020, the SEC finished its schedule and prepared a new one new than six weeks from the kickoff.
Do not expect the SEC to repeat the 2020 timeline, but do not expect that all these diversging opinions will be found behind a solution within the spring meetings of the conference that ends here on Thursday.
Also influence the decision: The college football playoff format remains unspecified for 2026 and beyond, and many SEC coaches and administrators relied reluctant to decide the conference schedule until much information about the future playoff format and selection process does not come to light.
Even Kelly, a proposer of the nine conference sports, says he would slow down this conference schedule, if it was over it, and does not leave that chip before learn more about the future of the playoffs.
The SEC has considered an increase in nine conference sports for many years, but remained at eight consecutive. Big Ten and Big 12 play nine conference games. ACC plays eight.
Around the conference, “Different types of approaches,” Sanki said.
“Some will say,” Let’s just play nine games. More SEC game is better, “Sanki said. “Some people will say, ‘Wait a second, I am watching a bowl qualification, and it is difficult to reach that six-win limit while building my program.”
“And then you have some people who watch last year and say, ‘Our interpretation is under the current selection criteria, losing weight (on the committee’s decision) losing weight. Losing a game is more problematic, and as long as we have better understanding on future norms or entry points for CFP, we are not ready to go to nine games.”
“I think they are three philosophy, but I think there are some that (nine) are ready to go.”
Majority votes will be required to reach a decision.
Will SEC decide on Thursday, will be decided without a decision?
“This is my hope,” Sanki said on “The Paul Finbam Show”.
And, therefore, Kain is kicked, slightly ahead of the road. In the past, this familiar road always ends at eight.
Blake Topmeyer The National College of the USA Today Network is a football columnist. Email her Btoppmeyer@gannett.com And follow it on X @btoppmeyer,