Tuesday night’s unveiling of the College Football Playoff rankings didn’t have any relative excitement for the Georgia Bulldogs. With their victory over Georgia Tech, the ‘Dawgs secured another 12-0 season. But, if they are able to defeat the Alabama Crimson Tide in Saturday’s SEC Championship game, they’ll likely play in the Sugar Bowl in one of the CFP semifinals.
“Certainly if you look over the history of the SEC, it might not impact the 12. It might impact who has to play when, who gets byes,” said Georgia head coach Kirby Smart when asked about the importance of the SEC Championship game relative to the expansion of the College Football Playoff. “You’re playing for a bye, for a home game. You’re playing to get in, to get knocked out.”
There is no doubt Georgia has been consistent in their performances this season. However, behind them, things could get interesting.
The Oregon Ducks and the Washington Huskies will face off in Las Vegas in the final Pac-12 Championship game as we know it. Presumably, Oregon could advance to the College Football Playoff if they beat the Huskies Friday night. Also, if any of the top four loses this weekend, this could open doors for the Texas Longhorns or Alabama.
While Ohio State lost to Michigan last weekend and only has one loss, their path to the top four is muddled because their only other big win of the season is against Penn State. As a result, they are the only team in the top eight that is not playing in a conference championship game this weekend.
Bill Hancock, chairman of the College Football Playoff said the committee does not prioritize tiebreaker criteria. He added it’ll be up to the judgment of each committee member which of the tiebreakers are more important to him or her. There’s just no established priority for the tiebreakers.
“It happens in my three years since I’ve been on the committee,” explained Boo Corrigan, College Football Playoff Selection Committee chair. “It happens every year, something along these lines. Maybe not seven of eight playing in a championship game, but typically there’s one team that does not play, and as we look at it to your point, it is an extra data point that we have.
It is something else that we can look at as we’re evaluating it. And as we said from the very beginning, it’s never one single data point, it’s everything combined. It’s thirteen different people that are all committed to doing it the right way, committed to doing it with integrity and committed to getting it right.”
Of course, if Georgia does not handle their business this Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, nothing else matters and their chance at a three-peat and winning a conference title could go down the toilet.
“None of all of that matters to me as much as an SEC Championship does,” Smart explained Sunday. “I think that’s lost on everybody. Nobody cares. All they want to know is who’s the champion of the NCAA and the national champion, who is not the conference champion. Maybe that’s lessened in value to the outside world. It hasn’t lessened in value to the coaching world or the men in our room, the players. We had a team meeting not too long ago. I said we’ve won as many SEC championships as we have national championships around here.”
Missouri, Ole Miss, LSU and Tennessee are the other SEC teams in this week’s CFP rankings.
No matter how you calculate it, no undefeated conference champion will be left out of the playoffs. Despite the wishes from those in the legacy media that wish for chaos.
“They’re hard to win,” Smart said. “You better appreciate ’em. They’re really hard to do. So I have an appreciation for winning a conference championship. It’s hard.”