Earlier this week Georgia and Clemson announced that they were canceling four future matchups the programs had scheduled between the 2029 and 2033 seasons. On Wednesday Kirby Smart spoke about what led them to make this decision, and he shared that it has to do with how the College Football Playoff committee doesn't value strength of schedule enough.
That's a fair reason to want these games canceled, but Smart is contradicting himself. After canceling their home-and-home series against Florida State earlier this year they scheduled one neutral site game against the Seminoles in 2028 in its place, so Smart apparently doesn't care about how the committee views their strength of schedule in 2028 but he does care one year later when they were supposed to play Clemson.
“Look, I would love to play those games,” Smart said via dawgnation.com. “I think those games are what the fans want. It’s what the players want. It’s what everybody really wants ultimately at the end of the day is to have an opportunity to do those things. But I can promise you all those same people want to make the playoffs as well.”
College football is better when marquee non-conference games are played
Smart himself said that he wants these types of games to be played. He also believes that players want to play in these games and fans want to watch these games, and that is undeniably correct. If all of that is true then it doesn't make that much sense for Georgia to cancel these games.
Smart's rationale for canceling these games is because of the College Football Playoff committee. He doesn't believe they value strength of schedule enough and as a result it isn't necessary for Georgia to schedule more games they could potentially lose. That however doesn't add up because Georgia wasn't afraid to play these games back when the playoff was only four teams or when the BCS still existed and only two teams got to play for a national championship every year.
Back then Georgia and many other teams were willing to schedule multiple non-conference Power Four opponents every season. They knew games like this made their team better and made the college football product as a whole better, but now Georgia, and many other programs, no longer want to play these games.
The playoff today is easier to get into than ever before. All Georgia has to do is go 10-2 and they will make the playoff most years, and playing games against teams like Clemson doesn't make them that much more likely to miss the playoff. If Georgia were to lose to Clemson then lose two other games later in the year to finish 9-3 they would've proven that they didn't deserve to play for a national championship that year. Going 10-2 with an extra win against a nobody non-conference team wouldn't change that.
Just look at Texas and Ohio State. They just wrapped up a home-and-home series this season with two games that were amazing to watch. Sure Texas missed the playoff last season which they blamed on the fact that they played Ohio State, in reality though that wasn't the loss that kept them out of the playoff because they lost to a 4-8 Florida team last year as well.
College football is better when big programs play each other. Who cares what the committee thinks, if everyone wants to play these games (like Smart admitted) then spot the ball and play these games.
Georgia has options to keep Clemson on their schedule
Georgia has canceled future series against NC State, Louisville and Florida State along with Clemson over the last year. They however scheduled one neutral site game against Florida State to replace their lost series which will occur during the 2028 season.
In 2028 Georgia will play 11 Power Four opponents with their nine SEC games and Georgia Tech also being on their schedule. Kirby Smart clearly isn't worried about the extra competition that year so it doesn't make sense that he is worried about it when it comes to Clemson.
If Georgia and Clemson don't want to play a home-and-home series that's fine, but they can still play neutral site games. That's what they did in 2021 and 2024 and both games were a huge success.
In theory playing these marquee non-conference games does decrease Georgia's chances of making the playoff by a little bit, but it is not substantial. If Georgia is the program they think they are then they shouldn't be afraid of playing anyone. They should be willing to play any team on any day and not care about the potential negative playoff implications.
Georgia still has one final home-and-home series scheduled against Ohio State. These games are scheduled to occur in 2030 and 2031, but based on Smart's statement it seems like it's just a matter of time until these games unfortunately are canceled too.
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