One of the biggest advantages of being on a bye week is most other teams still have to play... With the No. 5 Georgia Bulldogs sitting comfortably at 6-1 (4-1) heading into The Cocktail Party, they can unofficially cross off one would-be College Football Playoff contender. That would be the Oklahoma Sooners, who fall to 6-2 on the year and 2-2 in SEC play. This comes after its home loss to Ole Miss.
The Rebels bounced back after their tough road defeat at Georgia to hand the Sooners their second loss of the season, 34-26. Ole Miss has improved to 7-1 (4-1) on the campaign to keep its real playoff dreams alive. As for the Sooners, theirs are only holding on by a thread. Entering play on Saturday, Ole Miss had a 49.5-percentage chance to make the playoff, while Oklahoma had a 43.1 shot to make it...
In a way, Ole Miss had to get this game. Oklahoma was the only potential resume booster the Rebels had left on their soft SEC schedule. They only play unranked teams the rest of the way vs. South Carolina, The Citadel, Florida and at arch rival Mississippi State. This team feels like it is going 11-1. As for Oklahoma, the Sooners have four more ranked teams left to navigate on their brutal schedule...
They will be at Tennessee, at Alabama, home vs. Missouri and then home vs. LSU to end the season.
Ole Miss beating Oklahoma is doubly good for Georgia's playoff chances
Ole Miss continuing to win gives the Dawgs an even more quality victory over the Rebels. Again, the chances of them winning out and making the playoff are quite high now. Should Georgia win out, or even drop another game, the Dawgs will be validated for having a strong win over the Rebels. As for Oklahoma, there is a chance the Sooners lose the rest of their games to finish the season at 6-6...
It is a product of having one of the toughest schedules in college football this year. Georgia also has five common SEC opponents with Oklahoma, but the Dawgs do not face the Sooners in 2025. Georgia beat Ole Miss, Tennessee and Auburn on Oklahoma's schedule. The Dawgs lost to Alabama, but have yet to play Texas, a team who beat Oklahoma. Georgia will beat out OU in most tiebreakers.
In the end, Oklahoma was always somewhat of a paper tiger in all of this. While teams like Alabama, Georgia and Texas A&M have strutted their stuff so far, Ole Miss is proving to be more of substance than the Sooners. The SEC will get four teams into the playoff, possibly five, but probably not six. Is Oklahoma even a top-six team in the SEC right now? Ole Miss and the Mizzou-Vandy winner top them.
And if Texas somehow avoids a third loss on the season, that would make at least six better teams...