Nick Saban and Kirby Smart agree Bama doesn’t want UGA in the Playoff

Alabama put down a feisty challenge from Georgia in Saturday’s SEC Championship. The Tide trailed 21-7 late in the first half and had to contend with injuries to Tua Tagovailoa throughout the game, but a great Jalen Hurts effort and a stupid UGA fake punt combined in the closing minutes to swing the game to the Tide, 35-28.

Kirby Smart thus lost to Nick Saban for the second time, though he’s twice come closer to beating the master than any of Saban’s other ex-assistants has. And in his postgame press conference, Smart was all jacked up and ready to go at the Tide again.

“It boils down to one thing,” Smart told reporters after the game. “Do you want the four best teams in or not? It’s that simple. They sat at home last year and got to go in the game while everyone else was beating each other up, and they had a good football team.”

That’s Smart referencing Bama making the Playoff in 2017 despite losing the Iron Bowl to Auburn and not participating in the SEC Championship. The Tide got the last spot over Ohio State, then vindicated that decision by going ahead and winning the whole thing.

“Give that coach across the sideline a vote who he doesn’t want to play,” Smart urged the media. “It will start with us. I promise you he don’t want to play us. It’s not our decision, it’s their decision. But if you’re going to put the best four football teams in ...”

Smart, it turns out, correctly characterized Saban’s opinion:

That’s irrelevant on at least one level — the Tide don’t pick the other three Playoff teams — and could be irrelevant on another: Georgia might not make the field.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey’s already started lobbying for the Dawgs to make the field. He quickly found a microphone after the game to make this point:

It will be that they got the snot kicked out of them by LSU in Week 7.