The SEC upped the travel roster limit from 70 to 74 this season, which might seem nominal, but has made a lot of head coaches very happy.

Kirby Smart is one of those coaches and he explained that he spent time meeting with athletic directors to push for more roster space.

“The SEC has made it 74 this year,” Smart said during the SEC coaches teleconference on Wednesday. “That’s helped tremendously, I think we met with our ADs and everybody lobbied, some people lobbied for it to be more, some people less.”

Smart believes having the roster at 74 for road games is huge. If a player goes down with an injury, it’s nice for coaches to know that there is depth there, which comes in handy, especially on special teams.

Having more players also means more experience for younger players. Even if a freshman doesn’t get in the game, he gets the chance to be around the team during the course of a game.

“There’s a lot of things you can do to take more players because the home roster has 80 and the visitors now have 74 and that was a change, 74 to 75 is usually based on special teams or health,” Smart said. “You’ve got a couple guys down at a position, then you take more because of the risk of injury, so that’s ultimately what it comes down to.

Smart will get to utilize the 74-man travel roster this weekend as the Bulldogs take on Auburn on the road.