Bama's 27-24 win over Georgia may shut SEC out of CFP
ATLANTA — The sound you hear is that of 13 members of the College Football Playoff committee dropping 13 fizzy antacids into 13 glasses of water.
Sudden onset gastroenteritis, brought to you by the surprise Southeastern Conference champion Alabama Crimson Tide, and its perennial fall guy, Georgia.
Bama’s 27-24 victory was a mild upset in terms of betting odds (Georgia went off as a 5½-point favorite) but a potential tsunami wave in terms of what the result may mean for the College Football Playoff come Sunday.
Georgia, No. 1 entering the weekend, was a clear lock to return to the CFP with a win, prepared to make a bid for a record third straight national championship, something never done before in the modern era (since the start of The Associated Press poll in 1936).
Now its chances of making history are hanging by the most frayed thread. Don’t feel too bad, Georgia, because Alabama’s hopes may not be much better.
If this were all happening next year, Alabama and Georgia would both be nestled well within the city limits of the expanded 12-team playoff. But in this final year of the four-team CFP, both could be on the outside looking in.
That means the conference in which "it just means more" may have to learn to live with less after placing at least one team in the first nine College Football Playoffs.
The new 16-team SEC will be an annual player in a 12-team CFP starting in 2024. But the entire way through, this season seemed like an off year by SEC standards, and the league may miss the mark.
Not that Alabama coach Nick Saban wasn’t lobbying for his team before and after the big win. And probably right up to the moment the CFP bracket is revealed at 11 a.m. Sunday on ESPN. His words may just fall on 13 sets of deaf ears.
“The message I would send is, we won the SEC,” Saban said. “We beat the No. 1 team in the country. If we needed to do something to pass the eye test, that contributed to it significantly.
“I think this team is one of the four best teams.”
For Alabama, that argument typically wouldn’t even need to be made. This year it does, for a couple of reasons:
1. Alabama (12-1) got shoved around in a 34-24 loss to Texas back in September, then looked awful in a 17-3 win the next week at South Florida. Texas also went 12-1, pounding Oklahoma State for the Big 12 championship Saturday en route.
2. Alabama needed the miracle of all miracle finishes to beat 6-6 Auburn, also by a 27-24 score, on a fourth-and-31 touchdown pass that ESPN said had a 99.9% chance of failing.
The Crimson Tide is very good, but very lucky. The CFP committee members can’t ignore the former but also can’t forget the latter.
Why couldn’t Georgia win Saturday? Well, for one thing, no one beats Alabama in Atlanta, apparently. The Tide is now 16-0 in its past 16 games here since losing the 2008 SEC title game to Florida. For another, Nick Saban may be getting old (he turned 72 on Halloween), but he’s still the Jedi master.
Saban taught Georgia coach Kirby Smart a lot, from the one season Smart served as Saban’s secondary coach at LSU in 2004, his one season under Saban with the Dolphins as nine years as Nick’s top assistant at Alabama.
Saban didn’t teach Smart all the Jedi mind tricks, though. Saban is now 5-1 against his most successful former apprentice, including a 3-0 record in this game.
Afterward, Smart also pleaded his team’s case before the CFP committee.
“You’re going to tell me somebody’s sitting in that committee room and doesn’t think that Georgia team is not one of the best four teams?” Smart asked. “I don’t know if you’re in the right profession.
“It’s a really good football team. It’s a really talented football team. It’s a really balanced football team. They have to make that decision, but it’s the best four teams.”
Unfortunately for Georgia, four spots are all the CFP has. One is going to Washington, which got to 13-0 Friday by beating Oregon for the Pac-12 championship — and, per Vegas oddsmakers, boosted LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels’ Heisman campaign in the process.
Another spot is likely for unbeaten Michigan if it were beat Iowa in the Big Ten title game Saturday night. A third would go to unbeaten Florida State if it were to win the ACC title game over Louisville, also on Saturday night.
But 12-1 Georgia over 12-1 Texas or 12-1 Alabama? The Bulldogs’ nonconference schedule, to put it politely, stinks. Georgia beat UT-Martin, Ball State, UAB and Georgia Tech. It doesn’t have a win close to Texas’ win at Alabama, and darned sure doesn’t have anything to compare to Alabama’s win Saturday.
No, Georgia is out. Not down for good, just out for this year. So, probably, is Alabama.
Save a bicarbonate for the SEC, CFP. This won’t taste very good going down.
