Get ready for some major drama, everyone! It seems there’s nothing that can stand in the way of Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart. After the Dawgs secured a hard-fought 22-19 victory over Steve Sarkisian’s Texas Longhorns in the SEC Championship, you’d think a celebration is in order. But for now, Smart is focused on silencing his critics. Interestingly, he spotted one of his largest detractors, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, on stage. Talk about sweet revenge for the Dawgs! While Sankey initially adhered to the “silence is golden” approach, he eventually broke it with enthusiastic applause.
During the SEC Championship game on Saturday, Smart’s team not only triumphed over the Longhorns but also earned a first-round bye in the College Football Playoffs. When ESPN’s Laura Rutledge interviewed Smart afterward and asked what it meant for them, he seemed eager and ready with a response. With Sankey present and cameras rolling, Smart pointed at the SEC commissioner and declared, “It means rest for a team that Greg Sankey and his staff sent on the road all year long!”
Smart has valid reasons for his frustrations toward Sankey. The SEC commissioner had designed a schedule that included four challenging road games for the Bulldogs, featuring tough opponents like Alabama, Texas, Ole Miss, Tennessee, and the traditional neutral-site game against Florida. While Smart and his team faced numerous challenges, they also experienced setbacks, narrowly beating Kentucky and suffering a loss to No. 4 Alabama.
It’s understandable that the Dawgs might feel mentally exhausted at this point. And who knows this better than their head coach? When asked about their next steps, Smart said, “We get to take a little bit of a break and get ready for College Football Playoffs. This team needs some rest mentally, needs a little time off.” Throughout this exchange, Sankey remained expressionless, clearly lacking a defense against Smart’s criticism. It’s unclear if Smart will face any disciplinary measures for publicly chastising the league’s commissioner, but it seems he wouldn’t be overly concerned about any consequences. Ironically, just before the championship game, Sankey praised the strength of the SEC’s schedule.
Speaking on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Friday, the league commissioner returned to a much-talked point: The SEC’s strength of schedule is unmatched. There was a debate a week ago whether Alabama, which finished 9-3 this season under first-year head coach Kalen DeBoer, should be ranked ahead of 10-2 Miami. In fact, the CFP selection committee was ripped by several analysts as well as fans on social media for putting three-loss Alabama ahead of two-loss Miami. But Sankey thinks the way the Crimson Tide, or any SEC team, proved itself against their conference schedule makes them worthy of a playoff spot.
Specifically, Sankey cited a composite strength of schedule rating that combines the Massey and Sagarin ratings with ESPN’s Football Power Index (FPI) which he said has 14 of 16 SEC teams ahead of the rest of the teams ranked in the CFP. The final two SEC teams are still ahead of some CFP-ranked teams in strength of schedule, he added.
“There has to be recognition. Like I could pull out my email and show you our 16 teams’ strength of schedule. And this is not my rating, this Massey, FPI and Sagarin combined. So you combine all of those, 14 of our teams’ strength of schedule is greater than the first of the other Top 25 CFP teams. In other words: 14 of our 16 have stronger schedules than the next CFP team. And then the next two follow and then everybody else in the CFP Top 25 rankings has a lesser schedule than our 16 teams when you use that metric,” Sankey said. In fact, he again spoke on the same line during an appearance on College GameDay on Saturday.
On that show, Sankey supported the CFP committee’s call to put Alabama in over Miami, and he boldly stated he was tired of having to defend that. “When you look at the principles, the first thing listed is strength of schedule. It’s not about just losses, it’s about how you challenge yourself,” Sankey argued. And there is also something that Kirby Smart might love to hear.
Greg Sankey’s tough love for Kirby Smart’s Georgia
Maybe deep down Sankey gives himself a pat on the back for unleashing the best potential in Smart’s Georgia. The tough schedule had somehow kept them on their toes, with a hunger to do better. On the College GameDay the commissioner stated, “We’re 8-3 against ACC teams during the season. You watch Georgia start [the season] at Mercedes-Benz Stadium with a resounding win, you watch South Carolina with a big win — both over Clemson — this is the strongest league in college football and it needs to be respected for that”
But college football fans hardly care. If you try to mess up with their favorite team, they are going to give you a hard time. That’s what happened with Sankey too, as a dialogue started to roll among fans that he is the one who pulls the strings. However, he came up with a sharp reply to the haters, saying, “People think I’m the puppeteer. Good, because that means they’re worrying about the wrong things.”
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