30 games that will eventually decide the 12-team College Football Playoff

1. Georgia vs. Alabama: Sept. 28

This is the game of the season. This is where everyone should lay their eyes. Let me introduce you to art in the form of sport. Alabama versus Georgia in September just has so much on the line so early in the season. It sets the tone for the entire SEC. How important will wins against Alabama be? How much will losses to Georgia hurt? This meeting matters because it impacts every SEC team trying to make the Playoff. The impacts are way beyond the two teams playing the game.

Georgia and Alabama not only could decide who goes to the Playoff, but it could also decipher who’s winning the number-one seed. Both of these teams have hard schedules outside of this game, but the winner of this game will be considered the country’s top team. They will likely be number-one in AP and all polls. 

And we expect a barn burner. Testing head coach Kalen DeBoer this early seems both cruel and devious, but it’s truly what he needs to show Crimson Tide fans exactly what they are getting from the former Washington head coach. Is this another long run of success ala Nick Sabin, or is this an experiment that has a shelf life? Weirdly, this game sets the expectation.

Meanwhile, Georgia lost any chance at a national championship because of the loss to Alabama last season. They scored with 2:42 left in the game, but they decided to kick it off and trust the defense to get them the ball back. That was a mistake. Jalen Milroe, who is returning to dominate college football, ran for 30 yards on the very first play of the drive. He showed immediately that Georgia made a mistake. Milroe led an eight-play drive that ran the clock to zero. A Jalen Milroe nine-year run on 2nd-and-8 sealed the game. What happens in the rematch?