Georgia football: The case to be no. 1 in CFB Playoff rankings

JACKSONVILLE, FL – OCTOBER 28: Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /

Georgia football is no. 2 in the Associated Press and the Coaches polls following their 42-7 win over Florida. But should Georgia be no. 1?

It’s been a long time coming, but Georgia football is finally back in the top-two of both the Associated Press and the Coaches Top-25. This follows an 8-0 start, a nine-game winning streak dating back to last season, two wins over Top-25 opponents and seven victories of at least 21 points.

The Bulldogs have earned their spot at no. 2. But is that too low? Above them is Alabama, 2016 National Championship Runner-Ups. They are also 8-0 with an eight-game win streak. The Crimson Tide have won five SEC Championships and four National Championships since 2009. In 2017, they are yet to allow 20 points in SEC play and are averaging 47.6 points against SEC teams.

They seem like the obvious choice for the no. 1 spot in both major polls as well as the first College Football Playoff Poll of 2017. But as Lee Corso would say; “not so fast!”

Sure Alabama is undefeated with an élite program that has stayed at the top for almost 10 years. But the purpose of the polls are to rank the top-25 teams as of (blank) week in (blank) season. What teams have accomplished over a multi-year period shouldn’t matter. It’s what everyone accomplishes this season that matters.

And Georgia has just accomplished more. The Bulldogs have two wins over ranked opponents; 20-19 on the road against no. 5 Notre Dame, and 31-3 at home against no. 21 Mississippi State.

Alabama however does not have a single win over a ranked team. They did open the season with a 24-7 win over a Florida State team ranked no. 4. But the Seminoles are now 2-5 and no longer ranked.

When it comes to who Georgia and Alabama have defeated, the Bulldogs have the edge. They have two impressive victories in terms of the stature of the opponent and the way that they won.

Brandon Wimbush and the Notre Dame offense have been stellar all season, except for the Georgia game in which the Bulldogs held them to just 266 yards of offense. And people want to scoff at the Mississippi State win, but they just defeated Texas A&M 35-14 in College Station. Alabama only beat the Aggies by eight points at Kyle Field.

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Besides that, Alabama seems to have an edge when it comes to how they win. Georgia beat Vanderbilt 45-14, but Alabama beat them 59-0. The Bulldogs have up 28 points to Missouri, Alabama hasn’t allowed more than 23 (to Colorado State). And the Rams scored 13 on Alabama’s back-ups.

So the way Alabama has easily blown by everyone from the opening kickoff shows that they’re better at beating teams than Georgia is, right? Again, not so fast.

Alabama’s reputation has earned them more than just favoritism in the polls. Opponents enter games with a different mindset against them. All four of the SEC teams Alabama blew out didn’t appear to have any confidence in themselves going in. And neither did Texas A&M in the first half. But look what happened when the Aggies started to show some life.

I’ll say it explicitly, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, Arkansas and Tennessee all laid down for Alabama. I’m not saying they threw the games. But they played to not get blown out instead of playing to win.

Georgia however does not have that reputation. In fact, Georgia has the reputation of coming up short in big games and losing at least one game each year that they should win. No one’s going to lay down for Georgia, they aren’t playing to not get blown out.

Georgia is the team that “doesn’t go 12-0,” someone is supposed to upset them. The Bulldogs are supposed to under-perform sometime. And yet, they aren’t. The worst game was the 28 points allowed to Missouri. That was with an injured defense and the offense scored 53 points and posted just under 700 yards of total offense.

They dominated a Mississippi State despite being underdogs. Shutout Tennessee and nearly shutout Florida. Considering that, Georgia’s blowout wins seem more impressive than Alabama’s. Georgia is having to grind out this season, while it seems that outside the A&M game, Alabama coasted to 8-0.

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Now I’m not going to make an argument as to why Vegas, ESPN, etc. should favor Georgia over Alabama in the SEC Championship Game. The Bulldogs have yet to even win the SEC East. The Crimson Tide will and should rightfully be the favorites to beat Georgia.

They have more depth at every position, while Georgia is this here and there. Their quarterback has more experience and their program as a whole just has more experience in championship games.

This isn’t about who beats who five weeks from now. This is about whose resumé is better. Georgia’s or Alabama’s. Right now, Georgia clearly has the better resumé. When the initial playoff rankings come out Tuesday, the committee should have Georgia at no. 1 and Alabama at no. 2.

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