Georgia football remained at No. 4 in the updated College Football Playoff rankings after their dominant victory over Charlotte on Saturday. While it would be nice for Georgia to climb even higher than this by the end of the season, it is looking like earning the No. 1 overall seed will not be possible. So the next best thing is to stay inside the top four and earn a first round bye in the playoff.
Many Georgia fans believe the easiest way to accomplish that is by beating Georgia Tech this weekend and failing to qualify for the SEC Championship game. This would ensure Georgia doesn't lose a second game which theoretically should keep the Bulldogs at No. 4 at worst in the CFP's final rankings.
And while there is a lot of logic to this, the committee could ultimately decide to punish Georgia in favor of one team if they fail to make the SEC Championship game.
CFP committee could make an example of Georgia
Year after year the committee have shared that they will reward teams that make their conference championship games. This doesn't mean they will automatically punish teams who don't make their conference championship games, but they may decide to move one team above another because of that.
This is where things get interesting for Georgia because they have not earned their place in the SEC Championship game just yet this season. They either need Texas A&M to lose to Texas or Alabama to lose to Auburn to earn their spot in the title game, but if neither outcome occurs then Georgia will not get a chance to defend their SEC Championship this season.
The committee could ultimately decide that they don't want a team inside the top four of their rankings who isn't even playing for their conference's championship. So a team like Texas Tech, who is No. 5 and many fans believe could be above Georgia already, could move above them.
It will be interesting to see what the committee decides to do after this week of games, but the only way for Georgia to guarantee they remain inside the top four is by beating Georgia Tech and earning their spot in the SEC Championship game.