Georgia’s Kirby Smart on CFP selection committee’s ‘unjust’ criteria: ‘Don’t know what they’re looking for’

The third edition of the College Football Playoff rankings were released Tuesday night. 

The Oregon Ducks remained in the top spot. Ohio State, Texas, Penn State and Indiana rounded out the top five. Georgia, which hoisted the College Football Playoff national championship trophy in 2021 and 2022, was slotted in the No. 10 spot. 

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart appeared to take issue with the Bulldogs’ ranking as of late. Smart voiced his apparent frustration during one of his recent media sessions and suggested the selection committee lacks transparency as it relates to its criteria.

“It’s a hard one because I don’t know what they’re looking for,” Smart said, via On3 Sports. “They can’t define that. It’s not simple, either. I mean, anybody can be on that committee and say, ‘This is what we’re looking for. This is our criteria. And there’s so much that it overlaps things and everybody debates it, and I don’t have time to really waste energy on it.”

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Georgia has played one of the more challenging schedules in the country this season. The Bulldogs went on the road to play Alabama, Texas and Ole Miss. The Longhorns were the No. 1 team in the nation when they took the field against Georgia. 

Smart argued the opponents a team faces should be given serious consideration when the committee conducts its evaluations. He also described the selection committee’s benchmarks as “unjust.”

“So, I think it’s more than your non-conference games and who you play,” Smart said. “It just seems unjust to me when you evaluate somebody’s got a third-ranked defense or somebody’s got a fifth-ranked defense.

“Well, don’t you think their defense is dictated by who they played on offense? And how many top offenses they play? Because last time I checked, our offense and our defense have played the top offenses and defenses across the country. Well, you’re not gonna be ranked as high if you play top ones than if you player lower-ranked ones, and that’s what gets me.

“They talk about the eye test. How do you play in the game? Well, how you play in the game is dictated by where you’re playing — home or away — and who you’re playing. That’s the two No. 1 indicators of how you play. It’s who you’re playing, who you line up across from that matters. But point differential, I don’t believe they look at just that. I don’t know if that’s actually the case. They’re looking at the whole picture of how you play and that’s dictated by who you play.”

Georgia finishes the regular season with two home games against UMass and in-state rival Georgia Tech.

The 12-team playoff bracket projection entering Week 13 has Georgia at the 11th seed. If the playoff started today, Georgia would play the sixth-seeded Penn State Nittany Lions in the first round.

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