Slowly but surely, the Georgia Bulldogs will once again prove to the college football world that they undeniably belong in the playoff. Georgia enters Week 8 as the No. 9 team in the country, up one spot after beating Auburn down on The Plains to improve to 5-1 (3-1) on the season. It may not have been the prettiest of games, but only teams the caliber of Georgia still find a way to get it done regardless.
Entering Week 8, Georgia has the sixth-best odds of making the College Football Playoff at a projected 72.5 percentage chance of getting in. The fact their only loss was by three points at home to a team that has an 83.9 percentage chance of making the field in the Alabama Crimson Tide really buoys them. Of course, they need to take care of business and add more to their playoff resume.
On Saturday evening, ESPN's Heather Dinich revealed her 12-team College Football Playoff bracket.
- Ohio State Buckeyes (6-0): Projected Big Ten champion
- Miami Hurricanes (5-0): Projected ACC champion
- Indiana Hoosiers (6-0): Projected Big Ten runner-up
- Texas A&M Aggies (6-0): Projected SEC champion
- Alabama Crimson Tide (5-1): Projected SEC at-large
- Ole Miss Rebels (6-0): Projected SEC at-large
- Georgia Bulldogs (5-1): Projected SEC at-large
- Oregon Ducks (5-1): Projected Big Ten at-large
- Texas Tech Red Raiders (6-0): Projected Big 12 champion
- Oklahoma Sooners (5-1): Projected SEC at-large
- LSU Tigers (5-1): Projected SEC at-large
- South Florida Bulls (5-1): Projected AAC/Group of Five champion
Her first team out would be the Tennessee Volunteers, a team that Georgia beat on the road before.
Following up the article, she put all of these teams into one of four buckets ahead of Week 8's games.
- Would be in (12): Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, LSU, Miami, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Oregon, South Florida, Texas A&M, Texas Tech
- On the cusp (4): BYU, Georgia Tech, Tennessee, USC
- Work to do (13): Cincinnati, Houston, Memphis, Missouri, Navy, Nebraska, Texas, Tulane, UNLV, Utah, Vanderbilt, Virginia, Washington
- Would be out (44): Arizona, Arizona State, Arkansas, Auburn, Baylor, Boston College, California, Clemson, Colorado, Duke, Florida, Florida State, Illinois, Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Kentucky, Louisville, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Mississippi State, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Oklahoma State, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Purdue, Rutgers, SMU, South Carolina, Stanford, Syracuse, TCU, UCF, UCLA, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, West Virginia, Wisconsin
While Dinich views Georgia favorably, there are a few SEC teams around Georgia that may fade soon.
Georgia is more likely to have CFP staying power than other SEC teams
When looking at the teams in and around Georgia's vicinity in the playoff picture, it is hard to deny what teams like Alabama and Texas A&M have done ahead of them. The Crimson Tide and the Aggies have the two best playoff percentages in the SEC at 83.9 and 77.6, respectively. Georgia is right off their pace at 72.5 percent. Ole Miss will have its opportunity to get Georgia at 60.1 percent right now.
Should the Rebels lose, that would skyrocket Georgia's chances of getting in, as well as making it that much harder for Ole Miss to get in. Again, Ole Miss is likely team right now. What is concerning is how analysts are still viewing SEC with sub-50 percentages at the midway point so favorably. Odds are Texas (34.4), LSU (32.6), Tennessee (30.4), Vanderbilt (29.0) and Oklahoma (23.4) are not getting in.
Texas needs to win out. Are LSU and Tennessee's schedules tough enough to get the quality wins they need to offset tough losses? Vanderbilt and Oklahoma's slates are a bit too brutal to navigate. Tennessee feels like the best bet to get in of that quintet, because they could get big wins over the likes of Alabama and Vanderbilt. Keep in mind this is a team that made the playoff only a season ago.
Right now, it feels more and more likely that the SEC will be getting in either four or five teams. Six seems like a bit much, especially if either the ACC or Big 12 can get a second team in. If the SEC gets five teams in, Georgia will be one of them. If it gets four in, Georgia will probably be one of them. Should the league only get three in like a did a season ago, Georgia is in as good of spot as anyone.
Georgia's greatest strength is to win games lesser teams would probably lose, and that matters here.