Georgia Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart thinks the SEC should consider something radical to get what it is owed in the world of college football.
Smart said the SEC should consider breaking away from the NCAA to set its own rules, including a possible SEC-only playoff. The Georgia coach believes the conference is strong enough to stand on its own, if necessary.
“I’ve been a huge advocate that we can’t find rules that everybody played by, then we should play by our own. I’m not afraid of that,” Smart said Tuesday, via Seth Emerson of The Athletic. “I’m not afraid to break away and say that our conference is strong enough to go out and have and play — I mean, like, if we could actually function and it financially would make our programs more stable, and we could support things financially. I’m talking about all the sports and do by our own rules. I’d be all for that.”
Nothing like this is likely to happen anytime soon, but the idea has been tossed about amid frustrations about the lack of uniform rules that are currently enforceable in college sports. Essentially, the SEC would break away from the NCAA and make its own rules that would not require other major conferences to agree to.
Talk about other potential changes, including an expanded College Football Playoff, has also picked up recently. The running theme is that nobody is happy with how things are going in college sports, but finding a consensus on how to change it is proving difficult.
