It may take a minute, but everybody and their brother has a new flavor of the week in the SEC. When it comes to the latest AP Top 25 Poll, the Georgia Bulldogs come in at No. 10 heading into their latest rendition of The Deep South's Oldest Rivalry at Auburn. As is the case with the Kentucky, Georgia will be more punished with a loss than rewarded for a victory. Then again, other teams might start losing.
Entering Week 7, Georgia has the eighth-best odds to make the College Football Playoff. The three-point loss at home to a fellow one-loss Alabama team, has the Dawgs looking up at four other SEC teams in not only the polls, but in another college football analyst's playoff field projections as well. A few are more justifiable than others. Thankfully, water will be finding its level shortly over in the SEC....
On Saturday, ESPN's Heather Dinich released her projected College Football Playoff field for Week 7.
- Miami Hurricanes (5-0): Projected ACC champion
- Ohio State Buckeyes (5-0): Projected Big Ten champion
- Oregon Ducks (5-0): Projected Big Ten runner-up
- Texas A&M Aggies (5-0): Projected SEC champion
- Ole Miss Rebels (5-0): Projected SEC runner-up
- Alabama Crimson Tide (4-1): Projected SEC at-large
- Oklahoma Sooners (5-0): Projected SEC at-large
- Georgia Bulldogs (4-1): Projected SEC at-large
- Indiana Hoosiers (5-0): Projected Big Ten at-large
- Texas Tech Red Raiders (5-0): Projected Big 12 champion
- Tennessee Volunteers (4-1): Projected SEC at-large
- Memphis Tigers (6-0): Projected AAC/Group of Five champion
It should be noted her first team out of the College Football Playoff field this week is the LSU Tigers.
As a follow-up, Dinich then placed all of these teams into one of four buckets heading into Week 7.
- Would be in (12): Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Memphis, Miami, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Texas Tech
- On the cusp (4): BYU, Georgia Tech, LSU, Michigan
- Work to do (21): Arizona, Arizona State, Cincinnati, Houston, Illinois, Iowa State, Maryland, Missouri, Navy, Nebraska, North Texas, Old Dominion, South Florida, TCU, Tulane, UNLV, USC, Utah, Vanderbilt, Virginia, Washington
- Would be out (38): Arkansas, Auburn, Baylor, Boston College, California, Clemson, Colorado, Duke, Florida, Florida State, Iowa, Kansas, Kansas State, Kentucky, Louisville, Michigan State, Minnesota, Mississippi State, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Oklahoma State, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Purdue, Rutgers, South Carolina, SMU, Stanford, Syracuse, Texas, UCF, UCLA, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, West Virginia, Wisconsin
Of the four teams Dinich and the AP voters ranked ahead of Georgia, who is for real and who is not?
Georgia has not earned better, but it might be getting better here soon
Here are the four SEC teams Dinich and the Associated Press have ranked over Georgia this week.
- Alabama Crimson Tide
- Oklahoma Sooners
- Ole Miss Rebels
- Texas A&M Aggies
Unless the Dawgs get to Atlanta, they will not face either Oklahoma or Texas A&M during the season.
Right now, Georgia is 0-1 against those four teams with a three-point home loss to Alabama back in Week 5 coming off its first bye of the season. After playing Auburn at Jordan-Hare this weekend, the Dawgs will be back at it hosting Ole Miss. Georgia could overlook the Tigers ahead to this date with the Rebels, but Kirby Smart and his team cannot afford to do so. Ole Miss will host Washington State.
Since Georgia already lost to Alabama, the Dawgs are only getting past the Crimson Tide should Kalen DeBoer's team suffer one more defeat than Kirby Smart's at any point in the season. That may come after this week with Alabama having a tougher road game than Georgia by going to Columbia to take on the undefeated Missouri Tigers. For now, Alabama being ahead of Georgia is totally validated.
As far as the others are concerned, Georgia will have an opportunity to prove its own vs. Ole Miss in two weeks. Through the first six weeks of the season, the Rebels have been arguably the best team in the SEC. For the time being, their ranking ahead of Georgia seems to be justifiable. That being said, this is the only SEC team that will not play a Power Four program in the non-conference this season.
And that leaves us to debating who is more for real between Oklahoma and Texas A&M. Trusting Texas A&M may not be the for faint of heart, but the Aggies have show an ability to hang tough in close games. Beating Notre Dame on the road earlier in the season is looking more impressive by the week. At the end of the day, Oklahoma is the odd man out, as illustrated by their playoff percentages.
The Sooners have worse odds to make the playoff than does Georgia. Oklahoma may be undefeated, but they have played all of their easy games up to this point. They might get John Mateer back this week, but that will be in Red River vs. a Texas team that cannot afford a third loss on the season. OU may win this game anyway, but the schedule does not get any easier. It is so easy to short them now.
As far as Georgia is concerned, the Dawgs' two toughest remaining games are at home vs. Ole Miss and Texas. The Rebels may have gotten the best of them a year ago, but that was during a rainy affair in Oxford. Georgia beat Texas twice last season, and none of those games were in Athens. Other games on UGA's schedule may get harder as time goes along, but its gets easier while OU's does not.
It could all be a moot point if Georgia loses to Auburn, but let's not buy into what Oklahoma has done.