Georgia football has been a regular participant in the SEC championship game on the first Saturday of December during Kirby Smart’s time as coach.
In six of his eight previous seasons, the Bulldogs’ ticket to the game was an SEC East path.
Now, it’s a 16-team slugfest in a conference with Texas and Oklahoma added to the mix. With two weeks to go in the regular season, six teams are still alive for a spot.
Georgia is done with its SEC slate after putting the clamps on Tennessee 31-17 Saturday night, which puts the Bulldogs in a great spot for the playoff but not so great to make it to Atlanta for the SEC championship game.
And that actually may be best for Georgia in the long run for several reasons.
Let’s start with the fact that this is a beat-up Bulldog bunch.
“We’ve accumulated a tremendous amount of injuries from the schedule we’ve had,” Smart said after the Tennessee win. “And it’s not really going to get any easier. It’s a physical game. But when you play the gauntlet of what we played, it’s taken its toll.”
Georgia played without running back Trevor Etienne, offensive linemen Earnest Greene and Micah Morris and defensive back Joenel Aguero on Saturday and lost wide receiver Dillon Bell during the game. Running backs Branson Robinson and Roderick Robinson also remained sidelined.
If Georgia plays in and loses the SEC championship game and gets in the playoff, it will mean it will have gone through a 17-game season to win a national championship including a first-round playoff game, quarterfinal, semifinal and national title game.
Reaching the SEC championship game would mean Georgia is playing for the automatic bid and a first-round bye, but what if the Bulldogs have the type of game it had in its loss at Ole Miss and that’s the last impression of a 10-3 Bulldogs’ team before Selection Sunday?
Does it cost Georgia a home game in the first round or even knock them out of the playoff?
Smart didn’t want to entertain such scenarios on Monday when asked if it’s best for Georgia to not play in the SEC championship game.
“The focus is on UMass,” he said. “I mean, it really is. So, why would I put energy or time into trying to figure out what the best pathway is, including the SEC championship, when I’m worried about UMass? I just don’t think it’s a quality conversation.”
When he wasn’t pivoting from one game week to another, Smart wondered in May of 2023 at the SEC spring meetings in Destin about how the SEC championship game fits in to the 12-team playoff.
“Is somebody going to get an advantage by not going to the SEC championship game but making the expanded playoff?” he asked. “It used to be you got penalized for what bowl game you got sent to when you lost the SEC championship game. They put a thing in place to say if you lose the SEC championship game, you can’t fall further than this.”
Smart also brought up then the turnaround time from the SEC championship game to the first round of the playoff.
That would be 13 days if the game is Dec. 20 or 14 days if it’s Dec. 21.
“The two teams that go, I’m looking at it from a competitive disadvantage of you might have to play one or two weeks later after just playing that game which will be the most physical game the whole year,” he said.
Georgia, at 6-2, is one of four SEC teams with two conference losses along with Tennessee at 5-2 and Alabama and Ole Miss at 4-2. Texas and Texas A&M are 5-1 but still play each other Nov. 30.
There’s even a chance for a six-way SEC tie. The SEC’s fourth tiebreaker — the combined record of teams’ conference opponents among tied teams — is likely to be the determining factor.
Georgia has a 37 percent chance to reach the SEC championship game, according to ESPN analytics. That’s behind Texas at 75 percent and Alabama at 69 percent with Texas A&M at 17 percent.
Texas, Alabama and Texas A&M are Georgia’s most likely opponents in order.
Georgia stands the best chance to get into the SEC championship game if Alabama loses one of its games to Oklahoma or Auburn, according to mred’s SEC standings tiebreaker scenarios.
Another positive for missing out on the SEC championship game is that national signing day is Dec. 4 — smack dab in the middle of that game week for the Dec. 7 game. And the transfer portal opens up Dec. 9.
Managing a roster for the 2025 season while juggling postseason prep is part of the job description for coaches now.
One current player, cornerback Daylen Everette, was asked about the possibility of playing 17 games. That includes the SEC championship game and four rounds of the playoff.
“This deep into the season, everyone’s going to have aches and pains,” he said. “I can’t really complain about that. For the most part, I feel fine. Playing a 17-game season it’s going to be a lot on the body but you get to play more football so I guess that’s the fun part about it.”
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Is missing out on the SEC championship game better for Georgia football?