Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart expressed his disagreement to reporters regarding the College Football Playoff committee’s criteria. “They really have to decide what they want,” regarding the strength of the schedule and the quality of the opponents. Well, when the latest rankings were released Tuesday night, the Dawgs were ranked 10th. Meanwhile, the team they beat on October 19 (in Austin), the Texas Longhorns, is ranked 3rd. The criticism was directed at Rich Clark, the executive director of the College Football Playoff. Additionally, Warde Manuel, chairman of the College Football Playoff selection committee, faced the heat.

Georgia beat a top ten team in the Tennessee Volunteers last Saturday night and only moved up two spots. Meanwhile, the Miami Hurricanes lost to a good Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets team ten days ago. Miami did not fall out of the top twelve.

As a result, Manuel said Texas is “still a very strong team.”

Despite surviving a tough battle against their old Southwest Conference rival, the Arkansas Razorbacks, Texas is in the top four.

“Well, obviously Georgia has a really good win at Texas,” Manuel admitted. “But as the committee analyzed Texas’ overall body of work versus where Georgia currently stands with two losses, even against top 25 teams, we came away with the fact that Texas is still a very strong team deserving of a third seed They have a top-5 defense. Quinn Ewers leads one of the best passing offenses in the country.

What does this mean?

If the Playoffs started tomorrow, Georgia would be on the road against the Penn State Nittany Lions in Happy Valley. An unusual cold climate, but possible in this format.

“We just looked at them and thought about it — and we went out, I should say, with them at 3,” Manuel said of Texas. “It’s nothing against Georgia. Georgia is a great team, but they struggled against Ole Miss at Ole Miss, but had a nice win last week against Tennessee. We will continue to monitor both teams and see how it goes in the coming weeks.

The top four teams in the College Football Playoff will receive a first-round bye. Teams ranked 5-8 will host their first round matches on campus. Finally, the teams ranked 9 to 12 will travel to play their first round matches.

SEC Championship Game Can Now Decide Who Makes Playoff

Currently, the SEC has four teams with an 8-2 record: Alabama, Georgia, Ole Miss and Tennessee. Georgia played five games against the committee’s top seven teams and won three, one more than Alabama, Ole Miss and Texas combined. However, it appears that the Committee places greater value on the number of losses a team has rather than the quality of its schedule.

As a result, Georgia completed its conference schedule at 6-2. Alabama has two conference games remaining (at Oklahoma and at home against Auburn). Ole Miss also has two conference games remaining (at Florida and at home against Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl). Finally, Tennessee plays a road game against Vanderbilt in Nashville. It stands to reason that if Texas doesn’t lose its remaining games against Kentucky and Texas A&M, the Longhorns will play in Atlanta.

However, if Alabama, Georgia, Ole Miss, Texas and Tennessee intend to make the College Football Playoff in 2024, losing the SEC Championship Game won’t help anyone’s cause.

This was not lost on Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin.

“I’ve talked to other coaches, so I’ll just give you the feeling of some other coaches. They don’t want to be in it,” Kiffin said Monday of the SEC championship game. “You know, the reward of getting a pass versus the risk of being completely eliminated, it’s pretty big, it’s a really big risk.”

Therefore, Kirby Smart stayed away from this discussion.

“Why should I spend energy or time trying to figure out what the best path is, including the SEC Championship, when I’m worried about UMass?” » Smart said. “I just don’t think it’s a quality conversation.”

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