“I don’t know what they’re looking for”: Kirby Smart tears into CFP committee’s ‘unjust’ criteria

The latest CFP rankings were released on Tuesday, and head coach Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs were ranked 10th. This is a step down from the AP Top 25 Poll where the Bulldogs are the No. 8-ranked team.

After the new rankings came out, Smart voiced his displeasure with some of the reasoning brought up for where teams are positioned during the weekly SEC teleconference.

"It’s a hard one because I don’t know what they’re looking for," Smart said. "They can’t define that. It’s not simple, either. I mean, anybody can be on that committee and say, 'This is what we’re looking for.' This is our criteria and there’s so much that it overlaps things and everybody debates it and I don’t have time to really waste energy on it."

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Kirby Smart doesn't like how team's national ranks in statistical categories influence rankings

One of the biggest issues Kirby Smart has with the committee's criteria is that they take into account national ranks in things like offense and defense. While those are valuable stats for fans to look at, Smart believes they have more to do with the quality of the opponent.

"It just seems unjust to me when you evaluate, somebody’s got a third-ranked defense or somebody’s got a fifth ranked defense," Smart said. "Well, don’t you think that third or fifth-ranked defense is dictated by who they’ve played on offense and how many top offenses they’ve played."

He continued his statement by talking about how Georgia has been forced to play against some of the top offenses and defenses in the country. As a result, he thinks their offense and defense is ranked unfairly low because of how difficult their schedule has been this year.

Another issue for Kirby Smart was the committee overvaluing wins and losses. Four of the top five teams are in the Big Ten, whereas just one is from the SEC. He thinks that the committee values wins and losses rather than looking at the quality of those results.

Smart complained about the fact that the committee does not seem to value the eye test over wins and losses. He said he thinks they are taking a simple approach to the rankings when there should be more factors they consider.

As things stand ahead of Week 13, the Bulldogs are positioned to make the playoffs as the No. 11 seed and would play Penn State.