Han Vance on Georgia football: The College Football Playoff looks possible but not necessarily probable for the University of Georgia Bulldogs as of the latest CFP committee rankings. The committee ranks teams every Tuesday at 7 p.m. and it is released to the general public on ESPN Tuesdays at 9 p.m.
Both the powerful committee and the network itself have way too much sphere of influence, the sport still deciding its champions via popularity contest. I went ahead and picked Georgia, in my early Tuesday article, to defend the SEC championship crown successfully to a majority-Dawgs crowd on December 1st in the World Capital of College Football – a phrase I coined a decade ago and propelled forth so much that the College Football Hall of Fame leadership in Atlanta cloyed to it. Winning in Atlanta should be an impossibility for no Georgia team which qualifies by winning the SEC East, and mighty Alabama loses a big football game every year.
Do they look better than Georgia so far? Yes, they won a game in a place where Georgia got exposed as young and unready. Georgia has the youngest team in the SEC. They won what is widely considered the tougher half of the SEC, the SEC West. They have 17 national championships – which “can not be considered by the committee” according to its guidelines but clearly always is. They are undefeated still. …Again, in the long run, that could become a UGA advantage. Everybody hurts…sometimes.
If and when my beloved Georgia beats Alabama, Alabama still gets in, like always, probably as the #4, based mostly on their recent and ancient history and ignoring the committee’s own clear guidelines. “The eye test” is usually their biggest lie. Notre Dame gets in as an undefeated at least #3 who beat Michigan. Clemson gets in, maybe even if they drop a game as usual (non-power Boston College is their competition in a watered down ACC), as the #1 if still undefeated as looks probable.
- ACC – Deep South
- Independent
- SEC – Deep South
- SEC – Deep South
The SEC champion should still get in unless they had two losses. Right?
Powers Michigan or Ohio State win the respected Big 10 with just one total team loss. Georgia is ahead of Ohio State now and would pass the so-called Big Blue, the winningest team in college football history, by finally besting the presumed best. Out of the CFP. Oklahoma or West Virginia, considering they don’t split a win and a loss each over two probable meetings bridging the regular season finale and their no-divisions title game, have a one-loss champion for the Big 12. Out of the CFP. The Pac-12 should have a whole half the country staunchly against the current iteration of the CFP. They have one-loss Washington State as a current fake-contender; Pac-12 gets left out.
Bama out? They (or an undefeated Clemson) would still be favored to win it all. Fairness. A concept the NCAA has trouble with but that the people, the fans, should outcry for more.
Two conferences getting in, Notre Dame staying Independent forever of course, both of those conferences having their powers residing so well into the Deep South, spells huge trouble for the College Football Playoff. System can be scrapped anytime, y’all. We the people hold the power.
Ol’ Georgia could literally be the ultimate undoing of the bad system, which should have been eight teams when it was conceived. All the Dawgs have to do is win four more games in-state, only one an upset. Power running football teams always have an advantage over any passing team.
If Georgia is good enough to win the SEC and yet still too young to win it all, I would have to understand. If the Dawgs can win six more games, the national championship trophy heads to Athens. That would mean beating three less-than teams, beating Bama, winning twice in the CFP. Lots of ifs.
My goal for Georgia this year: winning the SEC. The national championship is essentially mythical, because the system is still broken. Georgia can ultimately undo it with one big win.
Here it is:
- Bama – appeared in all CFP
- Clemson – appeared in all but first CFP
- Notre Dame – media darlings beat Michigan in opener
- Michigan – still play faded Ohio State
- GEORGIA – GLORY, GLORY!
- Oklahoma – may play WestVA twice
- LSU – played tough schedule
- Washington State – need to win Apple Cup
- WestVA – may play OU twice
- Ohio State – one loss CFP regular
- Kentucky – Beat Mississippi State badly
- UCF – underrated program would outscore many
- Syracuse – peaking Upstate, edged by Clemson
- NC State – Clemson undressed them
- Florida – Beat LSU
- Miss State – SEC West’s 3rd
- Boston College – uprising way up North
- Michigan State – solid program
- Texas – Big 12’s 3rd lost opener to Maryland
- Penn State – white out
- Iowa – they beat teams
- Iowa State – they beat teams
- Fresno State – California’s finest
- Auburn – ranked for a week
- Washington – finish with Wash State
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