Georgia is exactly the kind of program that makes the new 24-team College Football Playoff feel unnecessary.
On Monday, the CFP committee announced that the playoff will expand to 24 teams starting with the 2027 season next year. The committee sees it as a boost for the sport, arguing that it opens the door for more teams that would have little to no shot under the 12-team format. Plenty of fans see it differently, believing the move will strip too much meaning from the regular season.
That argument could go on for a long time. But Georgia stands out as a clean example of why bigger is not always better.
For programs at Georgia’s level, the expanded field almost turns the playoff into a yearly safety net. A 9-3 season would likely still be enough to get in, and there’s a strong chance 8-4 would be too. That may sound like a benefit for a powerhouse, but it also means a team can stumble through a bad year and still get rewarded with a shot at the national title.
And that’s the issue. The playoff should be reserved for the best of the best.
Georgia is one of the biggest brands in the country and one of the top programs in the sport, but if the Bulldogs have a bad season, they shouldn’t be handed a chance to win it all anyway. The same logic applies to teams like Alabama, Texas, Notre Dame and Ohio State.
Under this setup, those schools could go years without missing the playoff, and that makes the regular season feel a lot less important.
The committee may argue that keeping the sport’s biggest names in the bracket every year creates more compelling games. Maybe it does on paper. But fans are going to watch good football no matter whose logo is on the helmet.
If a team finishes 12-0, people want to see it in the playoff. That would be true whether the team is Georgia or a program like Syracuse or Michigan State.
A perfect regular season gets attention. Fans around the country would tune in to see that team chase a national title.
What they do not want is an 8-4 Georgia getting rolled by a better team simply because of the name on the jersey.
If the goal was to give more teams a real chance, the committee already did that by going to 12 teams. In 2024, the first year of the 12-team playoff, six teams reached the field for the first time.
That’s half the bracket. Then in 2025, six more teams got their first playoff appearance.
So yes, a 24-team playoff would technically create more openings. But the 12-team format already gave new programs a legitimate path while still making the race feel earned.
The other big problem is what this expansion does to conference championship games. The SEC, Big Ten, ACC and Big 12 have already said this year will be the final season for their title games.
That change is necessary to make room for the extra playoff games, but it comes at a cost. More playoff games does not automatically mean better games, especially if the result is a top seed beating one of the last teams in the field by four touchdowns.
Conference championship games usually deliver the better product. The SEC and Big Ten often produce top-10 matchups, while the ACC and Big 12 can still send two highly ranked teams into their title game. Georgia has already been part of memorable conference championship games against Alabama and Texas in 2024, and those are the kinds of matchups that will now be replaced by playoff games that are either lopsided or feature teams that are not truly built to win a national championship.
The committee may believe it is helping college football. Georgia’s place in the sport suggests otherwise.
The real motivation, in the end, looks a lot more like money than anything else. And that should not be what drives every decision in college football.
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Georgias CFP Path Looks Manageable Until One Brutal Draw Appears
Georgias path into the College Football Playoff can look pretty friendly at first glance, especially when the bracket conversation turns to possible matchups that would suit the Bulldogs. Teams such as Wake Forest, Tennessee and BYU stand out as the kind of opponents Georgia would likely feel better about seeing, at least based on how they have played this season and how their strengths line up.
But the picture changes quickly once the more dangerous names enter the mix. Miami, Alabama and Notre Dame are the sort of draws that would make any projection more complicated for Georgia, and they are exactly the kind of teams that can turn a manageable playoff path into a far tougher road. For now, it is all speculative, but the contrast between the favorable and unfavorable possibilities is what makes Georgias postseason outlook so intriguing. [Read more 🡒]
Georgia Powerhouses Are Turning The Playoffs Into A National Fight
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Kirby Smart Knows Georgia Is Chasing Something The SEC Wont See Again
The 2026 SEC Championship Game is about to become a piece of college football history, and Kirby Smart knows Georgia has a chance to be part of the final chapter. With the 24-team College Football Playoff set to arrive next season, the league title game in Atlanta will be the last one of its kind, giving this years race a little extra weight even by SEC standards. Georgia sits atop the conference standings and is trying to stay there long enough to reach the event.
Smart has already acknowledged what the change means, both for the SEC and for the sport as a whole, and he has made it clear that programs have to keep adapting as the landscape shifts. For Georgia, the immediate focus is simple: keep winning and put itself in position to compete for the last SEC Championship Game before the format changes for good. [Read more 🡒]