The Georgia College Football Playoff case no longer needs a sales pitch. After a 42-7 demolition of Ole Miss in Oxford, the Bulldogs look less like a team benefiting from a chaotic season and more like the one program everyone else has been chasing without noticing.
The playoff will reset this week. There will be a new No. 1 in both the polls and the rankings that actually decide the national champion. Georgia and Utah, both winners against top-10 opponents Saturday, will argue for the top spot, and UCLA’s backers will make a case for No. 8 that mostly goes unheard. None of that changes the clearest read of the sport right now: Georgia is the team with the fewest questions.
The Ole Miss Win Was Over Early
Georgia forced a three-and-out on Ole Miss’s opening possession, then scored a touchdown on each of its first three drives. The game was 21-0 before the crowd in Oxford had settled in. Nate Frazier and the Georgia rushing attack moved the ball at will, and Gunner Stockton needed only 15 pass attempts to produce 186 yards and four touchdowns. That works out to 12.4 yards per attempt and a touchdown on 26.7% of his throws.
Ole Miss never found an answer. The Rebels finished with 252 yards and could neither run nor throw effectively. This was not the back-and-forth shootout the teams produced last season. It was Georgia telling Ole Miss, in blunt terms, that the gap between them was real.
Why Georgia Was Overlooked
It is easy to understand how Georgia slipped out of the national conversation. Early wins over Western Kentucky, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Vanderbilt did not demand attention. Since then, the Bulldogs have beaten Alabama in Tuscaloosa, taken down Ole Miss in Oxford and handled Florida in Atlanta.
The lone loss, to Auburn, had more to do with Georgia giving the game away than Auburn taking it. A single fumbled exchange between Stockton and a teammate separates Georgia from 9-0. Even in defeat, Georgia looked like the better team.
That is the argument for the Bulldogs in a season without a dominant team. Their worst performance still compares favorably to anyone else’s. In a sport where nothing feels guaranteed, Georgia is the most dependable outfit on the board.
Alabama's Awkward Ranking Problem
No team drew more criticism from the first set of playoff rankings than Alabama at No. 5. The Crimson Tide sat No. 9 in the major opinion polls but eight spots ahead of a Tennessee team that had beaten them by 16 points. The committee said the head-to-head result did not apply because the teams were not in the same ranking pod.
Alabama then went to Baton Rouge and beat LSU 31-13, a result that looks strange in the box score. LSU ran 81 plays to Alabama’s 53 and outgained the Tide 457 yards to 285. But LSU reached the red zone four times and came away with 10 points, turning the ball over on downs once and fumbling another time. Alabama reached the red zone three times and scored 21 points. LSU finished 0-for-4 on fourth down.
Alabama controlled the game without dominating the stat sheet. Yet the rankings could still punish the Tide. Four teams between Alabama and Tennessee last week — Kentucky, BYU, Ole Miss and Ohio State — lost, while Tennessee beat Kentucky. That gives the Volunteers a better win than any on Alabama’s resume plus the head-to-head edge. If those results push Tennessee into the same pod as Alabama, the committee will have to sort out which head-to-head result matters more, with Texas also in the mix. Alabama may drop after its best win of the year, which says plenty about the system.
Oregon's Resurrection
Two weeks ago, Oregon’s playoff hopes looked dead after an 11-point loss at Illinois. The Ducks have since beaten Ohio State 41-28, and the score flattered the Buckeyes, who scored twice in garbage time. Oregon is 6-3 and still alive in the Big Ten race. Winning out against Michigan, Michigan State and Washington is not a long shot, and only the Michigan State game is on the road. Even a 9-3 finish could merit at-large consideration.
The losses to Oklahoma State and Illinois may age well. Oklahoma State is 6-3 and alive in the Big 12, while Illinois has won four straight to reach 6-3. If both are ranked, Oregon would own three losses to ranked teams and wins over Boise State, USC and Ohio State. The sportsbooks have noticed: Oregon’s playoff odds moved from +2000 to +280 after the Ohio State win.
BYU's Shrinking Path
Utah’s 28-20 win over BYU in the Holy War was one of the day’s best games and may have ended the Cougars’ playoff hopes. BYU was already No. 9 in the committee’s first rankings, close to the bubble. A loss to Utah likely drops the Cougars out of the top 12, and the remaining schedule offers little help. Wins over Baylor, Cincinnati and Kansas are unlikely to impress the committee.
BYU is one of five Big 12 teams at 4-2 in conference play, all trailing 6-0 Utah and 5-1 Texas Tech. If the Cougars cannot win the tiebreakers and earn a rematch with Utah in the Big 12 Championship, a return to the field will be very difficult.
