Georgia football has known they would be playing in the SEC Championship game for a week now, but they did not know who their opponent would be. The Bulldogs were waiting to see who would win the big rivalry matchup between Texas and Texas A&M on Saturday night to find out who they will face in Atlanta.
And the winner of that game was Texas, who beat the Aggies on the road 17-7.
This means that the two teams who have been ranked highest in the SEC will play for the conference title, which from the conference's standpoint is really good. But how will Georgia handle facing Texas for the second time this season?
Should Georgia be happy about playing Texas again?
On paper, this is not the matchup that Kirby Smart and Georgia preferred. Texas A&M already had three losses this season compared to just one loss for Texas, so in theory the Aggies would have been the easier game. Vegas agrees with that statement as well as they had Georgia favored over A&M by a full touchdown more than they have UGA favored over Texas.
But at the same time, this could be a good thing for Georgia for a few reasons.
The Bulldogs already playing (and beating) Texas once means that Georgia knows what to expect from the Longhorns. Sure Texas will have a few wrinkles to their gameplan this time around, but Georgia already knows how to beat Texas and they'll have confidence they can do it again.
Also, the winner of the first meeting historically does pretty well in a rematch in the SEC Chamionship game. A rematch has occurred in the SEC Championship game seven times in its history, and so far the winner of the first game is 5-2 in the rematch. So that quickly puts the "hard to beat a team twice" narrative to bed.
Finally, this matchup is really good for Georgia's College Football Playoff hopes. Had Gergia faced A&M instead and lost, that could have knocked UGA out of the CFP. But playing Texas, a team they already beat by 15 on the road, is a good thing because a Georgia loss will not boot them from the playoffs.
This is surely going to be a wild week as we build up to the showdown in Atlanta next weekend. Georgia however is going to have to be ready to play their best game of the season on Saturday, because this Texas team is going to want revenge.