Georgia Football: Kirby Smart is right! SEC teams should be ranked!

Georgia football fans and the rest of the SEC teams’ fanbases have always been proud of their conference. It is common for fans of different schools in the SEC to pull for another SEC team in a bowl game. We even have the slogan, “It just means more.” Fans even chant SEC when playing schools from other conferences, and when an SEC school loses to a team that is not in the conference, you can always hear the non-SEC fans chant SEC! SEC! SEC!

We are all proud (except Florida) of an SEC team’s success; people not from the South or not fans of an SEC school don’t understand that. This goes back hundreds of years, and If you are a student of history, it isn’t hard to understand.

But recently, the national media has demeaned the conference we love so dearly. Some say the SEC is not as good as it once was. Others even claim it is the third-best conference out of the Power Five. Well, in comes Kirby Smart, who does not believe any of those notions and believes the SEC is the best conference, period.

"“I personally think every SEC team should be ranked. I can guarantee you there are some teams that don’t want to play them that are ranked. I mean, I don’t — I literally have no idea what you’re referencing because every team we play in the SEC is good enough to beat us and whether they’re ranked or not, I could care less,”"

Some in the media have had a good laugh about this quote. But this is more Kirby Smart communicating to the team than it is the media. But, it also has truth in it. Smart always says, “Humility is a week away.” If Georgia does not play well enough on any given Saturday, they can lose because SEC teams have just as much talent as Georgia has.

A perfect example of this would be the Georgia vs. Vandy 2016 game. Another example would be the 2019 Georgia vs. South Carolina game. All those games have something in common: Georgia was the better team, but they played poorly and got beat.

So, while I disagree that Vandy should be ranked, I agree with the message. If Georgia turns the ball over four times against Vandy next week, I would not be shocked if they lose. In other conferences, specific teams could get away with that, but not in the SEC. So, if you do not understand Smart’s underlying message, you have exposed yourself as a causal!