ATHENS — Kirby Smart is good with Georgia’s SEC schedule flipping for the 2025 season.
“I just got one of the toughest road schedules in the country,” Smart said at his Tuesday press conference, referring to the upcoming slate. “I’d like to see it flipped where we have the opportunity for our fanbase to have probably the best home schedule in Georgia history.”
This season the Bulldogs play at Kentucky, Alabama, Texas and Ole Miss this season, in addition to opening the season against Clemson at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
In all, UGA plays five teams currently ranked among the top 16 teams in the ESPN FPI rankings in the 2024 campaign.
The schedule flip in 2025 means that Georgia — in addition to home games with Austin Peay (Sept. 6) and Charlotte (Nov. 22) — will also play host to Alabama, Kentucky, Ole Miss and Texas in Sanford Stadium.
“You start changing the model (again), you don’t get the flip of the model,” Smart said.
The SEC schedule model changed this season as a result of the league eliminating divisional play.
The top two teams will meet in the SEC Championship Game this season, different from the previous model of the East Division champ playing the West Division winner.
Smart said he’s not surprised by the league’s decision to have the teams play the same SEC opponents in 2025, flipping the campus locations.
“I’m not surprised, because if they start doing that (varying opponents from year to year), somebody is gonna get the raw end of the deal,” Smart said.
“The most continuity is doing this for two (seasons).”
Smart indicated SEC officials and coaches will keep a close eye on how the newly expanded 12-team College Football Playoffs play out, in terms of the degree the SEC teams’ scheduling and records are taken into consideration.
The league has also been considering going from its current 8-game conference schedule to a 9-game conference schedule in the future.
“Let’s see what it’s like, how things play out,” Smart said. “Let’s see what the CFP becomes, how many teams are going to be in the playoff, (and) does that designate us to go to nine (league games)?
“Does television have something to do with that? There’s a lot of unanswered questions, and to have a little bit of continuity and know what you’re going to get (in 2025), I’m fine with that.”