Georgia head coach Kirby Smart has cemented himself as one of the top leaders in college football when he led the Bulldogs to back-to-back national championships and an undefeated 15-0 season in 2022.
But with the new College Football Playoff system and conference realignment constantly changing things, Smart thinks the days of undefeated seasons are over.
Kirby Smart Doubts College Football Teams Will Ever Go Undefeated Again
At the SEC’s annual spring coaches meetings, Georgia football HC Kirby Smart credited the transfer portal and longer schedules as the main reasons he doubts a team will go undefeated again.
Last year, the Oregon Ducks finished the regular season a perfect 13-0 before getting walloped 41-21 by Ohio State in the College Football Quarterfinal at the Rose Bowl.
“I would like to say, yes, you would see fewer,” Smart said. “But I would say it’s not because of the schedule and the length of the schedule. It would be because of the portal and the lack of depth and the more parity.”
Smart also thinks the upcoming House Settlement could change things even more.
“As soon as I say that, it depends on the way things go in the next 6-10 months. You could end up with some haves and have-nots out there,” Smart said.
“And ultimately, a team could drive prices and go buy a championship like you’re talking about with super teams. I mean, I think we could see that if there’s not parity. We don’t really know if there’s going to be or not.”
But Smart also realizes that despite his concerns about what the transfer portal could do to the game, he comes from a position of privilege, leading one of the top football programs in the country.
“So the biggest decision that has to be made across football right now, by far to me, is when is the portal window, and is there one or two? Okay, that’s not being decided by us today. A lot of people don’t even know how it’s getting decided. Who’s deciding it, but I need you to think for a second, there is a strong contingent,” he explained.
“We had an AFCA meeting. We had a meeting in which we unanimously decided that there really needed to be one portal window, whatever that is, what it is, and it needs to happen sometime in January,” Smart said.
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“There’s different conferences that feel like [the transfer portal window] should not fall out during playing season… Is basketball able to do that? Or do they deal with the portal during their championship? During their tournament… We deal with that,” he continued.
As Smart alludes to, the winter transfer portal window begins when the college football postseason is in full motion. This is partially because it coincides with the changing of one school semester to another.
“Okay, that’s because of the academic calendar for us… Oh, by the way, we had to deal with that multiple times. It’s not fun. It’s not fun. It’s really hard to be playing in a championship setting, and having to deal with that. But when I brought that up as a complaint or a problem, it was told to me, ‘There’s no crying from a yacht.’
“So if you’re going to play in these environments, you have to be willing to do that.”
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