After Georgia football defeated Texas in overtime in the SEC Championship game, there were incredible celebrations on the field. Furthermore, although there are other noteworthy and noteworthy instances, Kirby Smart’s open criticism of SEC commissioner Greg Sankey was the one that went viral the most.
Sankey provided Georgia by far the most challenging schedule in the conference, which is why Smart did this. In addition to playing Tennessee at home, the Bulldogs had to travel to Texas, Alabama, and Ole Miss. After Georgia, these four teams are the conference’s top four. Since his team just won the SEC despite playing this challenging schedule, it seems to reason that Smart would be quite passionate about this.
One media person was not pleased with Smart’s remarks, despite the fact that social media found this tape to be humorous
Paul Finebaum of ESPN shared his thoughts via On3.com, saying, “I have a lot of respect for Kirby Smart, but I honestly thought he crossed the line by criticizing the commissioner standing right next to him during the trophy presentation. Why take a cheap shot at the SEC commissioner, especially when he wasn’t involved in setting that schedule? For the record, the schedule for next year, which will be released Wednesday night, will be completely different. Only the home games remain unchanged.”
Finebaum suggested that Kirby Smart could have handled the situation differently.
Finebaum was not pleased with Smart’s handling of this exchange. Some might contend that this was the most effective method to draw Sankey’s attention to such a significant issue, even though Finebaum may have a point about how Smart could have made his point without specifically mentioning Sankey.
One of Finebaum’s statements that defies logic is that Sankey wasn’t in charge of creating the schedule. Although this may be the case in theory, Sankey cannot simply claim that he was not directly responsible for creating this plan because everything that comes out of the SEC office is a reflection of him. After all, Sankey is ultimately in charge of the schedules since he had to have approved them or designate someone else to do so.
In addition, Smart believes that Georgia’s schedule was overly challenging in comparison to the other conferences, but his wish for more balanced schedules the following year would not be granted. Next season, Georgia will play the same conference schedule, but in different places. Next year, Georgia will visit Tennessee and host Texas, Alabama, and Ole Miss.
Therefore, next season will be busy for UGA once more. However, since the Bulldogs are the SEC’s top program for a reason, it is anticipated that they will return to the SEC Championship game in December of next year.
