While his team was victorious on Saturday, Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart still thinks there are serious problems with the state of bowl games in college football.
For a long time, bowl season was a highlight of the college football season. Teams in the top 10 got one more chance to make their case for the National Championship, and other worthy teams were allowed to extend their season for one more game and get to take part in a regional tradition.
However, as the bowl game schedule has expanded to include a plethora of pointless games between unworthy teams, the value of these games has declined in recent years. But not only with fans but with players. With the prestige of bowl games down, and going into the NFL Draft or transfer portal increasing in importance some bowl games have become laughing stocks in recent years.
And there is no better example of that than the 63-3 shellacking the Georgia Bulldogs put on the ACC Champion Florida State Seminoles on Saturday. It was a pathetic end to a fantastic season for the Seminoles that should have ended with a birth in the college football playoffs.
However, when they were left out of the final four, 23 different FSU players decided that preparing for the draft or moving to another school was more important than taking part in the 2023 Orange Bowl.
Georgia Bulldogs head coach says NCAA needs to fix bowl games
Florida State was without many of its best players including their top two quarterbacks, and while it surely helped Georgia get an easy win this weekend, the Bulldogs’ head coach felt terrible for the opposing team and fans. He believes that what happened in their game is an ongoing problem that needs to be fixed by the college football powers that be.
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“People need to see what happened tonight, and they need to fix this. It needs to be fixed. It’s very unfortunate that they have a good football team and a good football program and they’re in the position they’re in. … You can say it’s their fault and they have to solve their own problem. We had our guys, and they didn’t have their guys. College football has to decide what they want.
“I know things are changing. But there are still going to be bowl games outside of [the 12-team playoffs starting in 2024]. People need to decide what they want and what they want to get out of it because it’s really unfortunate for those kids on that sideline who had to play in that game and didn’t have their full arsenal. And it affected the game, 100%.”
– Kirby Smart
The college football playoffs will expand from four to 12 teams in 2024, however, the various games outside those matchups should continue to lose value for the teams and players that can’t reach the playoffs.