Georgia’s football team could have benefited from an expanded playoff this season, but the school’s athletic director does not want to see the field changed.
Georgia Bulldogs athletic director Greg McGarity told The Athletic’s Jeff Schultz that he’s against the expansion from four teams to eight, mostly because of what he thinks the cost will be.
“If it means the elimination of the SEC championship game, or other conference championship games, I’m against expansion,” McGarity told Schultz.
The SEC Championship Game is a financial success for the conference. The importance of it — and other conference championship games — could be diminished if the playoff field is expanded. This year for example, neither Alabama nor Georgia would have had much motivation to play hard in the game because both would have likely made the CFP win or lose. Schools also are not wild about cutting down the regular season by a game to account for a potential extra round of playoff games.
Expanding the field would seemingly make things more fair and allow for a Group of 5 team like UCF to make the cut, but there would be consequences, such as marginalizing the importance of conference championship games.
