Georgia Bulldogs Climb in College Football Playoff Rankings - Why It Matters
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ATHENS - Georgia inched closer to a New Year’s Six Bowl game Tuesday night. The Bulldogs are ranked No. 8 going into the final weekend of the year.
The question remains which game the Dawgs will be invited to, and if Georgia will play a game between now and then. Most view the Peach Bowl as the Bulldogs’ final destination, but that is not a certainty. Georgia came into Tuesday’s rankings as the No. 9 team, but saw Florida and Miami lose over the weekend, which had the potential to significantly alter the Orange Bowl’s plans.
That bowl is slated to take the highest-ranked non-champion from the SEC or Big Ten to face either Notre Dame, the ACC conference champion or its replacement. The Irish seem headed to the College Football Playoff no matter what, but if they beat Clemson Saturday the Tigers would likely fall out of the CFP and into the Orange.
A Clemson loss or Ohio State loss would almost certainly result in No. 5 Texas A&M vaulting into the CFP for the first time in program history. That would leave the highest-ranked SEC team to take that spot.
According to the SEC’s agreement with Orange Bowl, the SEC champion can not play in the Orange Bowl unless that bowl is a CFP Semifinal game as it was two years ago.
That means the fight for the Orange Bowl very well could come down to UGA and Florida, and who is ranked highest on Sunday after the SEC Championship is determined. Indiana, which is the Big Ten’s best hope of playing in the Orange Bowl, has had consecutive games with Purdue cancelled. It is unlikely the Hoosiers will jump UGA to play in the Orange Bowl.
With all of that said, SEC administrative officials have wondered if so-called horse trading because of COVID and travel could occur that places A&M in the Cotton Bowl even if the Aggies are the team designated to play in the Orange. By that thinking UGA would be most likely to play in the Peach and the Gators in the Orange.
“The bowls have no control,” one SEC administrator told Dawg Post in the last few weeks. “They will get what the committee assigns them.”
The Orange Bowl is the only New Year’s Six Bowl game this year that has restrictions on its selections. The Peach, Cotton and Fiesta all have so-called at-large selections, but those picks must include conference champions from the Pac-12, Big 12 and the top-ranked Group of Five conference champion, which at the moment is Cincinnati, but could wind up being Coastal Carolina or Louisiana.
Those three conference champions must be in the New Year’s Six. Then three four bowls would have to pick three teams not selected by the Orange, Sugar or Rose to play in their games.
PROJECTIONS:
"If" Clemson beats Notre Dame:
Sugar Bowl: No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 4 Notre Dame
Rose Bowl: No. 2 Clemson vs. No. 3 Ohio State
Orange Bowl (mandated SEC/Big Ten vs. ACC)
No. 5 Texas A&M vs. No. 15 North Carolina
Automatic bids:
Big 12 Champ
No. 6 Iowa State OR No. 10 Oklahoma
Pac 12 Champ:
No. 13 USC OR Oregon
Group of Five
No. 9 Cincinnati
Remaining at-large by rankings:
No. 7 Florida
No. 8 UGA
No. 11 Indiana
"If" Notre Dame beats Clemson:
Sugar Bowl: No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 4 Texas A&M
Rose Bowl: No. 2 Notre Dame vs. No. 3 Ohio State
Orange Bowl (mandated SEC/Big Ten vs. ACC)
No. 7 Florida vs. No. 5 Clemson
Automatic bids:
Big 12 Champ
No. 6 Iowa State OR No. 10 Oklahoma
Pac 12 Champ:
No. 13 USC OR Oregon
Group of Five
No. 9 Cincinnati
Remaining at-large by rankings:
No. 8 UGA
No. 11 Indiana
No. 12 Coastal Carolina