The SEC is already considered to be the most competitive conference in college football and the addition of Texas and Oklahoma should only make things tougher, Georgia’s Kirby Smart says.
Speaking on the storied Big 12 programs and their jump to the Southeastern Conference, Smart talked about the great respect he has for both schools and what they bring to their new league.
“It’s extremely tough,” Smart said, via DawgNation. “I mean the fact that they’re in our conference, they’re further away, they’re a powerful football team. They’ve got a great state to recruit in. Both of their coaching staffs are really good – Sark and Brent both have SEC-kind-of-experience.”
“And Brent being over in the ACC at Clemson, he’s played SEC teams kind of forever,” the Bulldogs coach added. “So they both know the climate they’re jumping into, and we think it makes our conference better.”
UT and OU also bring new sets of eyes to the SEC, which Smart thinks is a positive as well.
“Our brand extends further West. Two tremendous programs. When you add those two in, it makes the scheduling much tougher,” Smart concluded.
Smart knows all too well how tough the SEC already was. After winning 27 straight games before losing to Alabama by three points in the conference championship, UGA missed out on the College Football Playoff last year.