Georgia's Kirby Smart says he'd support SEC breaking away, playing by 'our own rules'

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While the Big Ten, ACC, Big 12 and Notre Dame are in support of a 24-team College Football Playoff, the SEC hasn’t budged. Instead, protective of the sanctity of the regular season and a conference championship estimated to be worth as much as $100 million, the league’s been open to expanding to a 16-team field.

During SEC spring meetings on Tuesday, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart endorsed a more radical idea, which was voiced by his university president, Jere Morehead, last week, according to The Athletic.

Morehead, reportedly peeved by the shortcomings of the House settlement — namely the ineffectiveness of the College Sports Commission’s attempt to oversee compliance and NIL rules — previously told The Athletic that an SEC-only playoff “would be fantastic.”

If it comes to that, and the SEC separating and governing itself, Smart would be on board.

“… I’ve been a huge advocate that if we can’t find rules that everybody plays by, then we should play on our own,” Smart told reporters Tuesday, the first day of SEC spring meetings, per On3. “I’m not afraid of that. I’m not afraid to break away and say that our conference is strong enough to go out and play.

“If we could actually function financially, it would make our programs more stable. We could support things financially.”

He added, according to On3: “I’m talking about all the sports and do our own rules — I’d be all for that.”

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A breakaway probably isn’t the cards this season, or for a while really. The current CFP contract runs through the 2031-32 season.

But until then, the SEC does have leverage, especially regarding CFP expansion talks. In order for the CFP to increase in size, the SEC and Big Ten must find common ground. They were effectively given the keys to dictating the future of the playoff two years ago, when FBS commissioners and Notre Dame leadership signed a memorandum of understanding before agreeing to a new media rights deal with ESPN.

College football’s conference commissioners failed to agree on an expanded format for the postseason ahead of this year’s Jan. 23 deadline that ESPN set, as reported by Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger. And so, the CFP’s remaining at 12 teams for the 2026 season.

Still, the comments made by Smart, and Morehead before him, are head-turning, even if they’re not entirely novel. The concept of a influential conference like the SEC and Big Ten potentially seceding isn’t new, but Smart — a two-time national championship-winning head coach — reportedly putting it as plainly as he did is notable, particularly considering the respect his voice commands in the conference.

In an era when NCAA rules are being frequently challenged in court and recruiting depends heavily on revenue sharing and NIL war chests while faith in long-awaited federal legislation is waning, the thought is, according to The Athletic, a breakaway could help the SEC defend its rules against antitrust litigation.

“I’ve been to this meeting now 10-11 times, and it’s frustrating at times to say, well, we can’t do this because of litigation, we can’t do this because we get sued, we can’t do that,” Smart said, per The Athletic.

“And we’re just trying to do things for the betterment of the sports and of the student-athletes, and that’s not curtailing what money they make. I’m not advocating that they can’t just fund what student-athletes make, I’m just trying to make it where it’s equal and it’s comparable footing for everybody, and it’s not a race to the bottom, as they say.”

Smart also shared, per ESPN, that he fears college football could ruin the rest of the college sports landscape. Several Division I schools have already began cutting sports.

"People say, well, that's just the way it is,” he said, according to ESPN. “I don't agree with that.

“We fund Olympic sports at our program and we go to class with [other athletes]. You learn culture by being around those people. But that's why we're talking about student-athletes, which most of you all would argue that there is no student in the athlete. I still think the best thing is to get a degree while also training to be a professional athlete. We're going to lose that if we keep spending because not everybody can spend at the rate we're spending.”

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