Oddsmakers predict more Georgia football dominance vs. SEC rivals

Let’s just say the oddsmakers are taking Georgia over the field heading into next season.

With a real shot at an unprecedented three-peat on the line, the oddsmakers are all-in on Georgia.

Over the last two years, Kirby Smart’s Georgia Bulldogs have gone 29-1. They went a combined 16-0 in SEC play and 24-0 in the regular season. Although they lost the 2021 SEC Championship to Alabama, the Dawgs avenged that loss by beating the Alabama Crimson Tide weeks later in Indianapolis. Smart’s team has not lost a game since the early December date over a year ago.

With FanDuel Sportsbook releasing a few early betting lines on marquee games for next season, we must pay attention to the ones involving Georgia. Brett McMurphy of the Action Network listed out a few games, including the Dawgs’ road date at Tennessee and the annual neutral-site affair vs. Florida in Jacksonville. Given how weak Georgia’s regular-season slate is, this feels very 12-0.

The Dawgs are giving Florida 17.5 points in Duval, as well as 7.5 points to the Vols up in Neyland.

Georgia expected to be a total buzzsaw once again vs. major SEC East rival teams

Initially, the Dawgs were going to begin a home-and-home series with the Oklahoma Sooners. With OU joining the SEC in 2024, that non-conference series had to be canceled. Although the Dawgs would have probably beaten the Sooners anyway, it would have made for a slightly harder schedule for the two-time defending national champions on their quest for the sacred three-peat.

With this probably being the final year of an eight-game SEC conference schedule in the incredibly antiquated 6-1-1 divisional format, the Dawgs are not always going to get big breaks like this. They have not lost a division game since covid. UGA has not lost at home since falling to South Carolina in 2019. The Dawgs may draw Ole Miss out of the West, but it at home. Auburn is awful.

When looking at the two game lines that McMurphy listed, here is what you need to know. Of course, the line of a major neutral-site game like the Cocktail Party would be put out there to the betting public this early. It signifies just how wide of a gap exists between Smart’s absolute juggernaut and what Billy Napier has to work with in year two in Gainesville. 17.5 does seem low…

As for the Tennessee line, that is especially telling. The Vols are largely seen as the most likely team to unseat Georgia as the top Dawg in the SEC East this year. While the game is in Knoxville, keep in mind both teams no longer have their all-conference 25-year-old quarterbacks. Georgia lost Stetson Bennett IV to the 2023 NFL Draft, but Tennessee will be without Hendon Hooker, too.

What the 7.5 points suggests is regardless of who wins the starting quarterback battle in Athens between Carson Beck, Brock Vandagriff or even Gunner Stockton, it will not be as much of a drop-off as it would be from Hooker to Joe Milton III. Even more so, this line suggests an even greater talent disparity between what Smart has been in Athens vs. what Josh Heupel has in Knoxville.

Overall, Georgia is bound to lose a regular-season game at some point, but that may not happen until 2024. The SEC almost certainly going divisionless in a 16-team league hurts the Dawgs considerably. In a 3-6-6 nine-game format, they will still play Auburn and Florida annually with the other game likely being either Kentucky or South Carolina. They will face more of “The West”.

Ultimately, the winner of UGA at Tennessee will likely decide who gets to represent the SEC East in Atlanta one final time. Florida may not be ready to pop under Napier. South Carolina has the right head coach, but a finite ceiling. Kentucky is interesting, but Mark Stoops has never beaten Georgia. Missouri and Vanderbilt will be fighting for bowl eligibility like they did only a year ago in SEC play.

If Georgia wins both of these games, then the Dawgs are pretty much a lock to get back to Atlanta.

For more College Football news, analysis, opinion and unique coverage by FanSided, including Heisman Trophy and College Football Playoff rankings, be sure to bookmark these pages.