Kirby Smart sounds off on SEC scheduling format

Debate continues over whether the SEC should implement an eight- or nine-game conference schedule for football. Just don’t expect Georgia's Kirby Smart to engage in it.

“The most overrated conversation in the world,” the two-time national championship-winning coach said Tuesday, per the Associated Press (h/t ESPN). "Four years, you will play everybody, home and away. I get the traditional rivalries, you have three, you have two, you have one. You have this, you have that. You guys need something to write about bad when you start talking about this."

Other SEC coaches, however, had more to say on the subject, especially Alabama's Nick Saban. Given that the two routes are eight SEC games with one annual opponent and nine SEC games with three annual opponents, it is worth hearing what the CEOs of every program have to say.

“My deal has always been to play more SEC games because we couldn’t get more people to schedule," Saban said.

But Alabama has home-and-home series scheduled with Wisconsin, Florida State, Ohio State and Notre Dame between 2024-30. If the SEC were to go to a nine-game conference schedule, Alabama might have to figure a way out of those games.

Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops supports the current eight-game format, while Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz supports a nine-game format.

If the SEC is to preserve traditional rivalries, a nine-game conference schedule appears to be the way to go. Florida-LSU, Georgia-Auburn and Tennessee-Alabama are staples of the SEC calendar, and having three annual rivals on the docket for each program allows the conference to keep those matchups going on a yearly basis.

Texas and Oklahoma will join the SEC in 2024, further complicating schedule making.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey prefers for the issue to be resolved quickly. 

“I would prefer to not continue to circle the airport with the airplane," Sankey said, per the AP.

The Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12 each have a nine-game conference schedules while the ACC is still using the eight-game format. 

Sankey also said earlier this week that “a league at the forefront of college athletics does not stand still,” indicating that the time is now for the SEC to evolve. 

The time might be now, but not every head coach cares -- especially the one with back-to-back national titles.