Georgia just dismantled Florida on Saturday 27-8. This win, combined with Ohio State's loss to USC, moved Georgia up to No. 2 in the latest AP Poll rankings.
Miami remained at No. 1 in this week's AP Poll for the third week in a row. They are 8-0 and just hung on at North Carolina this week to keep their No. 1 ranking, but there's a great argument for why Georgia should be No. 1 instead even though they have a loss this season.
The biggest reason why is because of the disparity in the schedules Miami and Georgia have played. Georgia has two big wins against Alabama and Florida on their resume while Miami only has one good win against Wake Forest. Miami also has had a few close calls against some bad teams like North Carolina and Florida State while also playing no other team with a pulse this season.
The average teams on Georgia's schedule are far better than the average teams Miami has played this season, so that combined with the better wins Georgia has is why they should be ranked No. 1 instead of Miami.
Georgia's loss to Auburn is holding them back
Two weeks ago Georgia dropped their first game of the season to Auburn. They thankfully bounced back against a ranked Florida team this past weekend, but that loss to Auburn is the only reason why Georgia is ranked below Miami right now.
No one is saying wins and losses don't matter, but strength of schedule also matters too. At some point a team's resume has to be able to be strong enough to overcome a team with a better record because if that isn't possible then everyone will just play the easiest schedule possible.
Georgia has played a far more difficult schedule and they have more marquee wins than Miami, so even though the Hurricanes are undefeated Georgia may deserve to be No. 1 instead of them. The good news is that the College Football Playoff committee can fix that for Georgia this week.
The CFP committee can fix Georgia's ranking this week
This week marks the first week of the CFP rankings. They are scheduled to come out on Tuesday, Nov. 3 at 7:00 pm EST on ESPN.
These are the rankings that will determine who makes the 12-team playoff field at the end of the season and these are the rankings that everyone will start using week to week. So even though Georgia is No. 2 in the AP Poll there's a chance the committee could change that on Tuesday and make them No. 1.
The committee has proven over the years that they're willing to rank teams completely differently from the AP Poll. The AP Poll tends to just move teams up and down based on wins and losses instead of looking at each team's total resume each week. The committee, if they do their job correctly, will compare Georgia and Miami's resumes and see why UGA deserves to be No. 1 over Miami.
At the end of the day it doesn't really matter what they rank Georgia, but it's always nice to be ranked No. 1 when you deserve it.
Every SEC team ranked in the Week 9 AP Poll
Rank | Team |
|---|---|
2 | Georgia |
8 | Kentucky |
9 | Alabama |
10 | Texas |
12 | Ole Miss |
15 | LSU |
16 | Tennessee |
19 | Missouri |
23 | South Carolina |
25 | Florida |
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