Georgia football is just days away from their first game in the College Football Playoff as they get set to take on Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl. And while hope is extremely high that Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs can still win a National Championship, the fact of the matter is that the odds of that happening have gone down since Carson Beck was ruled out for the season.
But even though the Bulldogs will be without Beck, most would assume that Georgia would still have some of the best odds out of the remaining eight teams to win the national title. That however isn't the case as ESPN's latest odds do not give Georgia a good chance to bring home a National Championship at all.
The best odds to win the CFP per ESPN. 👀 pic.twitter.com/mvyGEC18UF
— College Football Alerts (@CFBAlerts_) December 29, 2024
Some of these odds make no sense
To be fair to ESPN, some of the teams above Georgia is more than fair. 1-seed Oregon should definitely have better odds than Georgia, but it is a little surprising they don't have the best odds out of anyone. Ohio State having better odds than UGA is interesting, but not worth arguing over either.
However, Texas by no means should have better odds than Georgia. First of all, their path is more difficult to get to the title game than Georgia's because they will have to get through Oregon or Ohio State before having to potentially play Georgia once again. Georgia has also more than proven they are better than the Longhorns especially after coming from behind and winning in the SEC Championship game with Gunner Stockton under center. So there is no logical explanation for why the Longhorns' odds are better than Georgia's.
But the odds that make even less sense are Penn State, who somehow has better odds than Georgia as well. Does ESPN realize that Penn State will have to play Georgia in the semifinals if they win their first game? Even if Georgia loses to Notre Dame, the Nittany Lions will have a tough time beating the Irish as well. Sure Penn State has an easy game against Boise State this week, but they will be underdogs in their semifinal matchup.
At the end of the day, these odds do not matter at all. In fact, Georgia has actually done very well as the underdog during Smart's tenure, so maybe this is exactly what Georgia needs to go on a magical run this month.