In Kirby Smart’s eyes, a 3-point loss in the SEC championship game shouldn’t in itself keep Georgia out of the College Football Playoff.

The Bulldogs’ 29-game winning streak ended with a 27-24 defeat to Alabama on Saturday night in Atlanta, which will lead to a night filled with anxiety for Georgia before the four playoff teams are announced shortly after noon Eastern on Sunday. Smart pointed to the words of CFP executive director Bill Hancock in making the case for his team to make the playoff.

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“Bill Hancock said it’s not the most deserving, he said, simply it’s the best four teams,” Smart said. “So you’re going to tell me somebody sitting in that committee room doesn’t think that that Georgia team is one of the best four teams. I don’t know if they’re in the right profession, ‘cause it’s a really good football team. It’s a really talented football team. It’s a really balanced football team.

“They have to make that decision, but it’s the best four teams. That’s critical.”

There is precedent for a previously undefeated team that loses its conference championship game to get into the playoff. It happened just last year with TCU, which lost a close Big 12 championship game to Kansas State and reached the national championship game (losing 65-7 to Georgia) after beating Michigan in the semifinal.

Still, this year looks like a particularly tough one to make that case. It would seem that Washington, Texas and Alabama would all be ahead of the Bulldogs in the pecking order, and that’s before we know who wins Saturday’s late games in the Big Ten and ACC, which have unbeaten teams — Michigan and Florida State — playing in them.

Smart actually argued just the opposite. With the playoff contenders so closely bunched in terms of resume, perhaps “eye test” should be the deciding factor.

“Seems like this is the year that it should be the four best teams because you can make a case for deserving for everybody,” Smart said. “It’s unfortunate that these kids who give so much and play so hard, not just at Georgia, all these schools, they don’t get to decide it really on the field.

“It’s sitting back with a committee who has to determine who the best four teams are. If it’s truly the four best teams, let’s put the four best teams in.”

Georgia had not lost in nearly two years before Saturday, and has won the last two national championships. To be unable to defend it a third time over one lost seems especially cruel for the Bulldogs.

Then again, Georgia missed an opportunity to remove all doubt on Saturday. That’s what’s perhaps most galling, quarterback Carson Beck said.

“To go through an SEC schedule, 12 games, and to win each and every one, it’s not something easy to do,” Beck said. “It’s not easy. … Obviously to come into this game and not finish the way that we wanted to and kind of leave the destiny of our team in someone else’s hands rather than ourselves, that’s hard.”

Smart also pointed to the strength of the SEC to make his case. The league is 16-4 in the playoff since 2014, six national championships — including the last four.

Twice the playoff committee has put two SEC teams in the four-team field. Both times — Alabama and Georgia in both 2018 and 2021 — those teams wound up playing for the national championship.

“Look at the SEC championship,” Smart said. “Our teams in the playoff, look what they’ve done. Y’all tell me the record of the SEC teams in the playoff. It’s pretty spectacular.

“Twice, two of them ended up playing each other. I mean, who are the best teams? Do we want the best teams?”