Georgia coach Kirby Smart didn’t sound especially interested in making a big deal out of the SEC Championship Game’s looming end.
That event, which has been a fixture for 35 years, will wrap up after the 2026 season. The Southeastern Conference announced the final game will be played Dec. 5, 2026, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, shortly after the College Football Playoff management committee unanimously approved a 24-team expansion on Monday morning, Nov. 9.
“Not a real comment,” Smart said. “I think we all kind of knew, right?
It’s not really news that it’s breaking. It’s more kind of when they decide to go to 24.
Sounds like the SEC Championship will go away and I honestly don’t concern myself with that at all. I don’t have a lot of commentary about it.
“I think it’s a great, historic game. It’s great for the players, the programs, the fans.
The location has been awesome for us and the venue is incredible. All those things are awesome, but times, they are changing and as they change, we’ve got to adapt with it.”
Georgia has been a major part of the league title game’s history. The Bulldogs have won four SEC Championship games under Smart and six overall since the event began in Birmingham, Ala., on Dec.
5, 1992. Georgia is also tied with Florida for the second-most appearances at 13, with that run starting in 2002 and the latest coming in 2025.
The playoff changes themselves are sweeping. The field will grow from 12 teams to 24 beginning with the 2027-28 college football season.
The new bracket will include the champions of the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC, along with the highest-ranked team from the American, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West, Pac-12 or Sun Belt. The remaining 19 spots will go to the highest-ranked teams in the committee’s rankings as at-large selections.
The format also shifts where the games are played. Sixteen of the 23 playoff games will be on campus, a jump from four under the current setup. The quarterfinals and semifinals will stay at the six bowl partner sites: Cotton, Fiesta, Orange, Peach, Rose and Sugar.
This season still finishes under the current 12-team model, with the playoff ending in Las Vegas on Jan. 25, 2027.
The new setup also brings two open weeks during the regular season, with final games set for Saturday, Nov. 27, 2027.
The playoff will start the weekend of Dec. 11 so every qualifying team gets a week off before the first round. The top eight seeds will receive first-round byes and host a second-round game, while seeds 9-16 will host seeds 17-24.
Future national title games are scheduled for New Orleans on Jan. 24, 2028, and Tampa on Jan. 22, 2029.
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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 🡒]
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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 🡒]