Georgia's Kirby Smart 'Wants Dominance,' Criticizes Expanded CFP Format for 2024

Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart expects nothing less than college football dominance from his program during his tenure.

Speaking with ESPN's Chris Low, Smart detailed his desire for Georgia to be the top football program in the country:

"I was brought here to win championships, but the thing I'm proudest of has been the consistency. I look back on Year 1 (when Georgia went 8-5) as a failure and not the standard, but every year after that we've been right there. Nobody else over that span can say they've finished in the top seven at the very end for seven straight years. You can't find it, not even at Alabama. We missed the damn playoff three times by being No. 5 or No. 6, so those are missed at-bats we would have had in this 12-team playoff. We've been relevant every year but that first one. But I want more than relevance. I want dominance, and we've been more dominant in the last three years. What I don't want are the ebbs and flows or the one-hit wonders you see out there. I don't want any player to leave Georgia without a championship."

Being dominant means winning titles, and that's going to become more difficult in 2024 with the College Football Playoff expanding to 12 teams. The path to a championship will be more difficult for the SEC Championship Game loser, too, which Smart isn't a fan of.

"The idea of the SEC championship loser, who just fought their ass off to be the second-place team in the best conference in the world, having to turn around and play maybe two weeks later with no bye," Smart said. "If you go through our conference undefeated like we did last year and lose to a team in the SEC championship game, you're going to lose your bye and go play as a 5 seed somewhere? That's crazy."

Smart has been head coach of Georgia since 2016, and the Bulldogs are 94-16 in his eight seasons at the helm. They're also 9-2 in bowl games in that span and competed in three national title games.

After winning the CFP national championship game in back-to-back seasons in 2021 and 2022, Georgia missed out on a playoff berth in 2023 after falling to Alabama in the SEC title game, which was their only loss of the season.

The Bulldogs enter the 2024 season with the expectation of qualifying for the playoff, but the SEC is going to be as difficult as ever to win given the talent of programs like Alabama and LSU and the incoming additions of Texas and Oklahoma.

That said, Georgia boasts one of the most talented programs in the country with Carson Beck under center and an offense highlighted by Dominic Lovett and Rara Thomas.

Georgia has long had one of the best defenses in the country, and that should be no different in 2024. The Bulldogs are led by Julian Humphrey, Warren Brinson, Nazir Stackhouse, Joenel Aguero and Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins on that side of the ball.

With Smart expecting dominance, anything short of a national title next season would be a disappointment.