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Colorado's Travis Hunter Repsonds to Kirby Smart's Harsh College Football Playoff Stance

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Sean Deveney | Last updated Nov 22, 2024 11:06 PM ET

Anyone who thought that expanding the field for the College Football Playoff up to 12 teams would quell the litany of complaints that goes into how teams are selected for the tournament probably should have known better. No matter how big a tournament field is, there will always be complaints from teams who are just outside the field. Have 12 teams, and Team No. 13 is not going to be happy.

Heck, the NCAA basketball tournament has 68 teams and there's always an embittered 69th bunch out there.

It's possible that 13th team could be Colorado.

It's also possible that Georgia, despite the toughest schedule in the nation, could wind up on the outs--certainly there will be at least one good team in the SEC that does not make the cut.

That's why Bulldogs caoch Kirby Smart had a complaint this week about the College Football Playoff committee--the committee will pick 12 teams, but it is a secret process and the committee will never let the programs know what criteria it used to decide who's in and who's out.

“They place people based on a column of wins and a column of losses…not on the eye test…and who they play. That’s the most simple way to do it. It’s not necessarily the 12 best.”

Kirby Smart on the ranking process. #GoDawgs pic.twitter.com/iGvAZk5Zzj
— Aaron Leicht (@aaronleicht) November 22, 2024

Smart sounded exasperated by it. "I don’t know what they’re looking for. I really don’t,” Smart said, via On3 Sports. “I wish they could really define the criteria. I wish they could do the eyeball test where they come down here and look at the people we’re playing against and look at them. And you can’t see that stuff on TV. So I don’t know what they look for, but that’s for somebody else to decide."

Another team that could find itself on the outs of the CFP is Colorado, which is ranked No. 16 on the playoff chart and will likely need a run through the rest of the Big 12, including the championship game, to secure a spot among the final 12.

Star cornerback and receiver Travis Hunter was asked about what Smart said and mostly shrugged it off, trying to maintain some zen about the whole thing.

"I'm not the committee," Hunter said. "I can't tell the committee what to do. I guess he could try to put input in, but I really can't do nothing about it. You do something about it? Georgia plays good football. God has a plan, man, and the committee, they control it, but God has a plan ... If other teams lose, they could clearly be in the College Football Playoff. Georgia's a real good team ... They've got to keep playing, not worry about all of that."

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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