What’s more frustrating than the loss itself is that UGA for the first time went into the conference championship weekend ranked #1 but lost and dropped to #6, missing the playoffs.
The defenses are ahead of the offenses here, and neither team is likely to put up huge numbers. Florida State has to try to do so, but the Seminoles are really in no position to do that without Jordan Travis.
It’s hard to pick against either of these teams for different reasons. On one hand, Georgia has dominated for the past two years and plays its best football against the best teams on its schedule. On the other, Alabama keeps finding ways to hang around when it should have been dead and buried by now.
Alabama and Nick Saban had the upper hand over Georgia and Kirby Smart for about a decade before UGA finally broke through the last two seasons to claim the crown.
Oregon has been a cover machine and has looked far superior to Washington over the past six weeks. But are the Ducks really a full 10 points better than the Huskies at this point?
The wrong team appears favored here. Yes, Tulane has the better record and has dominated the American for two years. But SMU’s powerful showings the past few weeks have suggested this team really wants to go out of the American with a league title.
On one hand, we’ve got Michigan, undefeated and hardly scratched, despite having to face both Ohio State and Penn State out of the Big Ten East.
On the other hand, Iowa managed to win a bad Big Ten West that had just two other bowl-eligible teams out of six.
If ever there was an argument against the two best records in a conference meeting for the league title game, this game might be the one. Oklahoma State just doesn’t seem to have either the talent or the personnel to hang with Texas.
It’s Clean, Old-fashioned Hate. Yet, this rivalry has gone stale, certainly from the UGA perspective. Total and utter dominance over the last two decades will do that.