With expansion argument brewing, Smart hints at SEC secession - ESPN

Conversations around conference expansion have dominated the college football spring meetings thus far, and Kirby Smart's comments on Tuesday about the SEC essentially seceding have created plenty of questions.

The Georgia coach suggested that if an agreement can't be reached on expansion, spending in the NIL era and beyond, perhaps the SEC should try to go it alone.

«I've said this for a long time to our president,» Smart said on Tuesday. «I've been a huge advocate that if we can't find rules that everybody plays by, then we should play our own. I'm not afraid of that. I'm not afraid to break away and say that our conference is strong enough to go out and play.

The argument at front and center is whether to expand the College Football Playoff to 16 or 24 teams from the current 12-team model. For a change to occur, the conferences — most notably the Big Ten and SEC — must agree on a format. The Big Ten, ACC, Big 12 and Notre Dame are all on board for expanding to 24. The SEC is against that model at this time.

Smart's comments come after Georgia president Jere Morehead told On3 last week that if federal legislation isn't enacted to curb what he's called „anarchy“ in the sport, he's prepared to „be ready to vote on creating an SEC mechanism and SEC rules. That's what we have to do.“

The SEC's frustrations also come from lengthy NCAA investigations and other litigation, as well as concerns over NIL spending.

The topic is likely to dominate the remainder of the spring meetings. Morehead told The Athletic last week that he didn't know if it could come to a vote in Destin, Florida, but he expects „robust“ discussion, and that he likes the idea — even though he acknowledged it couldn't happen for another five or so years.

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