One of the biggest college football games of the season kicks off in Austin this weekend when No. 5 Georgia takes on top-tanked Texas in an SEC showdown for the ages. Not to mention a matchup with heavy College Football Playoff implications for the Bulldogs.
A Week 5 loss to Alabama sightly puts Georgia behind the eight-ball regarding their postseason aspirations. As college football analysts Paul Finebaum and Heather Dinich both discussed the stakes of Saturday’s game against the Longhorns on Wednesday morning during ESPN’s Get Up.
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“Georgia doesn’t have a lot of wiggle room, because they still have Ole Miss later in the year. But it would really bugs me about this game for Georgia is the mystique. I mean this is a program Greeny that owned college football for three years,” Finebaum told host Mike Greenberg. “They were going for a three-peat and now they’re struggling with a loss here to stay in the playoff race. That’s quite a fall.”
Following back-to-back national title wins, Georgia missed out on last year’s four-team College Football Playoff despite only suffering one loss to the Crimson Tide in the SEC title game. A field that’s now a little bit easier to make with the expanded 12-team playoff, but harder given the SEC’s new look league that adds another powerhouse program.
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“Well, as far as the playoff goes, Georgia needs to, obviously try to avoid a second loss. But I would be very careful to eliminate them if they lose a close game,” Dinich said. “But Greeny, the big picture here too is that Texas has a chance to assert itself as the best team in the SEC it’s first year in the league. I mean, think about what they’re going against.”
“Georgia over the last four seasons is 29-3 in the SEC,” she added. “All three of those losses have been to Alabama, so Georgia doesn’t need to add a Texas problem to that list. This is about the big picture in the SEC too.”
Winning a Power Four conference championship is the only guaranteed way to punch a ticket to the 12-team College Football Playoff. And Georgia already taking a loss this season leaves room for them not to make it to the SEC title game even with a win over Texas this weekend. Making Saturday, and quite frankly the entire remainder of the season, crucial for the Bulldogs.
“It’s the five highest ranked conference champions get in this thing, the four highest ranked conference champions earn that first round bye. So every week, these teams are not only playing for one of those chances, but seeds five through eight get a first round home game,” Dinich explained. “And then you get into if you’re a seed eight versus nine, the winner of that game plays the number one team in this country.”
“So this jockeying for position every week matters. And while there were some concerns that this expanded playoff would devalue the regular season, I would argue for the reasons we just talked about, it matters even more,” she concluded.
The post Paul Finebaum: Georgia could lose ‘mystique,’ College Football Playoff ‘wiggle room’ with loss to Texas appeared first on On3 .
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