Stephen A. Smith likens Georgia president's viral quotes about leaving the NCAA to segregation

Georgia president Jere Morehead made headlines last week when he told The Athletic that he would be in favor of the SEC pulling away from college football at large and running its own playoff if the powers that be can’t agree on a new playoff format. ESPN anchor Stephen A. Smith was not a fan of those comments, likening them to a call for segregation.

He noted that the sentiment from Morehead “reeks of an alarming level of arrogance” while speaking on ESPN’s First Take on Thursday. Then he broke down why.

[ $19.99 gets you a FULL year of On3 | Rivals national coverage ]

“It’s almost like he’s down south in Georgia and he wants the good ole days where it’s just about us and we’re living in our own world, separate and apart from everything else,” Stephen A. Smith said. “Integration is not a part of the thing. Segregation is not a part of everything. I’m going there because that’s how uncomfortable I was with how he came across in talking about the SEC in comparison to everybody else, obviously as the president of Georgia.”

The veteran ESPN employee then softened his stance a touch by acknowledging he could see where Morehead was coming from. But his overall point remained.

“It ain’t his job to be thinking about everybody else,” Smith said. “And I get that part. And I’m certainly not casting any aspersions on the great Kirby Smart, who I’ve got a lot of respect for and I’m very fond of.

“I’m simply saying that you can’t say stuff like that. You can’t encourage the notion of being separate and apart from a system that you’ve been ingratiated in all of these years because you’re thinking about yourself and you’re not thinking about bettering the system. That is to everybody’s detriment, not just that school or that conference.”

So what exactly did Morehead say that caused Stephen A. Smith to liken his desire to that of segregation? Morehead spoke to The Athletic ahead of the SEC spring meetings in Destin.

According to The Athletic, Morehead “likes the idea” of the SEC pulling away and running its own postseason if there’s no accord on a playoff format. His quote quickly went viral.

“I think that would be fantastic,” Morehead said. “I can’t imagine the ratings if that happened. Georgia-Alabama SEC championship last year had ratings through the roof. Imagine if that had been for the national championship? I think our fan base is strong across the country. I think we’d have tremendous interest in a situation of that nature. But, again, I’m going to be listening to the commissioner.”

Stephen A. Smith, who spoke about the topic for several minutes, reaffirmed that his belief is that those comments were out of pocket. For one, the SEC is no longer the top conference in college football.

Smith pointed out multiple times that the Big Ten has won the last three national championships in football, as well as the most recent national title in basketball. He noted:

“When you make a statement like that, it’s like you just want to operate independently of everybody else,” Stephen A. Smith said. “You basically want to establish not only your own conference, your own damn league. In other words, this is college football, and then there’s as. As if you don’t have to compete against anybody else to be legitimized as a champion.

“That kind of attitude is something that we should be concerned about. I’m not saying that he means it that way. I don’t know what he means. I don’t know the man, I haven’t spoken to him. What I’m saying is that the quote that he gave to The Athletic came across that way, and he’s got to be more responsible than that.”