With the College Football Playoff working group officially recommending an expansion from four to 12 teams, a big change is coming to the sport. Georgia coach Kirby Smart calls it the “greatest change” to the sport.

“Most changes have been relatively small,” Smart said during an appearance Saturday on ESPN’s “Marty & McGee.” “With the potential of what’s been proposed … [it’s] probably the greatest change there has been in terms of major college football.”

Smart further told the show what he expects to be the biggest factor deciding which teams get into the Playoff field.

“I think a lot of this is going to boil down to strength of schedule,” Smart told the show. “For a long time now we have been trying to build up our future strength of schedule, because it’s not the losses that are going to kill you; it’s not playing the best teams. We’ve tried to go out and schedule major Power 5s across our scheduling system all the way out with the hopes that this would give us the opportunity to go play some really good teams. And losses won’t kill you when you start talking about top 12. You’ve got to have a powerful schedule and go play good teams.”

Playoff expansion is expected to come in 2023 at the earliest. That season, UGA has a game at Oklahoma on its out-of-conference schedule. The 2024 out-of-conference schedule is highlighted by another meeting with Clemson in Atlanta.

SDS Staff

Saturday Down South reports and comments on the news around the Southeastern Conference as well as larger college football topics.