The third set of the College Football Playoff rankings was released Tuesday night, and of course, Georgia football is still the undisputed No.1 ranked team.
There is a lot of football left, but after Week 11, the committee chose to keep the top four from the second week of the CFP Rankings. With that decision, the committee is standing firm on leaving Cincinnati out, but that said, a miracle could happen for the Bearcats.
While there are still two regular-season weeks left and conference title games to play — if the committee decided the playoffs today, it would include two exciting semifinal games.
The Dawgs would take on No. 4 Ohio State while No.2 Alabama would play No.3 Oregon in either the Orange Bowl or Cotton Bowl.
Georgia football would see a more favorable route if the Week 12 CFP Rankings decided the playoffs.
While the Buckeyes are notorious for their high-powered offenses, their defenses haven’t been the best. Ohio State beat Purdue by 28 points, but the Buckeyes gave up 31 points against them.
Once again, the defense falls short for Ohio State, while Georgia’s defense demolished Tennessee. The Buckeyes hold their own on offense as CJ Stroud is 214-of-211 for 3,036 yards, 30 touchdowns and five interceptions.
Ohio State would be the easier route for Georgia because they wouldn’t have to play Alabama in back-to-back weeks, but the Buckeyes match up well with the Dawgs.
These two teams have offenses that can score and while on paper, the Buckeyes have one of the most explosive offenses and lead the country in scoring at 46.3 points a game, they haven’t remotely come close to playing a defense like Georgia’s.
The Dawgs are the No. 2 rush defense, the No. 6 pass defense and the No. 2 total defense in the country. Ohio State has the No. 1 total offense averaging 550 yards a game, but the best defense they faced off with came in Week 1 against Minnesota who is currently No. 7 in total defense.
However, since then, the Buckeyes haven’t played a defense ranked in the top 40.
Georgia has been able to demolish teams left and right, so while the Buckeyes are a different animal, if these two met on Saturday for a semifinal game, this defense would be too much for Stroud. His inexperience against a defense like this would be a big factor in this game and possibly decide it.
All of this is rhetorical, though, because the Buckeyes have to play Michigan State and Michigan, two top 10 teams, so it’ll be interesting to see if they can get past those two without losing to one of them.
Georgia has an easier route as they play Charleston Southern and Georgia Tech, but they have to stay focused.
There are still three weeks until we find out who the actual top four will be, but the Dawgs have a pretty decent path to get there for now. If they play their game, Georgia could be looking at Indianapolis for the title game.