The Georgia Bulldogs win the SEC East for the third year in a row, something that hasn’t been done in the division since the mid-1990s. All eyes are on LSU.
It wasn’t easy, but anything good usually never is. The Georgia Bulldogs survive a late charge from the cross-divisional rival Auburn Tigers down on The Plains Saturday evening, improving to 9-1 (6-1) on the year and clinching the SEC East crown for the third year in a row in the process.
Georgia holds the head-to-head tiebreaker over the archrival Florida Gators, who could only be at best 6-2 in SEC play. The Dawgs still have a home date next weekend vs. the Texas A&M Aggies but have booked their third trip to Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta in a row to face whoever comes out of the SEC West. That is almost certainly going to be the LSU Tigers in a few weeks.
Tonight, Dawg Nation can celebrate by beating a huge rival they hate in their building to clinch the SEC East yet again. Winning on the road in Auburn is always hard, but the Dawgs did enough to come out of Jordan-Hare with a thrilling 21-14 victory on Saturday evening.
Not since Steve Spurrier was running the Fun ‘n’ Gun offense at Florida has there been a three-peat in the SEC East. Given that it took 23 years for another SEC East school to three-peat, this is a huge accomplishment for Kirby Smart and his staff.
But come tomorrow, it’s back to grind, as the Dawgs will need to do that to reach the College Football Playoff for the second time in three years. Georgia will be an overwhelming favorite over Texas A&M Between the Hedges next Saturday. After that, Georgia will be expected to pulverize a rebuilding Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets team in Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate down on The Flats.
Should Georgia get to Mercedes-Benz Stadium at 11-1 (7-1), they will be playing for a certain trip to the College Football Playoff if they win. If Georgia drops one of their final three games, the Dawgs are looking at a return to the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans this holiday season. That’s not a bad bowl to be playing in by any stretch of the imagination, but not the one the Dawgs want.
Fortunately for Georgia, the Dawgs won’t have to leave the Peach State until at the earliest the national semifinal game if they keep on winning. And it’s only a 50-50 proposition in that case, as the Peach Bowl is one of the two national semifinals, being played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
Heading into the Texas A&M game, Georgia will stay in the top-four of the College Football Playoff Rankings. The Dawgs won’t jump LSU, the Ohio State Buckeyes or the Clemson Tigers. If they keep winning, they will remain the best one-loss team in the country, which will make things harder for the College Football Playoff Selection Committee to figure out in the coming weeks.
While Georgia fans in Auburn could throw toilet paper all over Toomer’s Corner tonight if they really felt like it because they’re champions of Auburn and the SEC East, the Dawgs need to beat Texas A&M, slaughtered Georgia Tech at Historic Mark Richt Field at Bobby Dodd Stadium and get ready for Joe Burrow, Ed Orgeron and the Eye of the Tiger in Atlanta in a few weeks’ time.
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