Schultz: Georgia’s new reality at 12-0: It may need to beat Alabama for Playoff berth

ATLANTA — When college football’s playoff field triples from four teams to 12 next year, much of the drama we witnessed in this year’s rivalry week will evaporate. That’s not to suggest expansion was the wrong decision. But Alabama, Washington and Florida State all almost lost this week, and Georgia was just sloppy enough Saturday to push every Bulldogs’ fan into some level of panic about losing to a Georgia Tech team that lost to Bowling Green.

Next season, there’s a good chance some top ranked teams can stumble in season-enders, be given the benefit of the doubt and make the playoffs.

But Georgia lacks something significant today: that same benefit of the doubt.

Coach Kirby Smart wasn’t prepared to acknowledge this after the Bulldogs’ shaky 31-23 win over the Yellow Jackets, but it’s generally understood that even a 12-0 regular season that includes a third straight undefeated run through the SEC schedule won’t mean a lot next week. Georgia could and should remain No. 1 in the College Football Playoff rankings going into the SEC championship against Alabama, but the team is guaranteed nothing if it loses the conference title game, given the backdrop.

I asked Smart if he believed his team had done enough to earn a playoff berth or a win over Alabama was needed to get one of the four spots. He declined to lobby on his team’s behalf or to directly answer. There’s a message in that.

“I wouldn’t really want to answer that,” Smart said. “I’m so worried about what we’re doing and getting better that I’m going to leave that to you guys. I’m not worried about lobbying for anything. I’m worried about playing for an SEC championship, which is really hard — really hard to get.”

Yes, it is. And despite Alabama needing a fourth-and-31 touchdown pass in the final seconds — that’s even worse than second-and-26! — to beat Auburn, that’s just not an opponent any team wants to face with a playoff berth on the line.

This isn’t 2021, when the Bulldogs lost the SEC championship to the Crimson Tide but made the playoff field, anyway, allowing them an eventual rematch with Alabama in the national title game. It was then that they exorcised the Nick Saban demons and won their first title in 41 years.

This isn’t 2022. Georgia dismantled LSU 50-30 for the SEC championship but it would have advanced to the playoffs even with a loss. (Even TCU lost its conference championship and made it into the field.)

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It’s a different backdrop this season. One berth will go to the Pac-12 championship winner between Washington and Oregon. One will go to Michigan, assuming the Wolverines thump Iowa for the Big Ten title. One will go to the SEC winner. If that’s Alabama, Georgia likely would need Florida State to lose the ACC game to Louisville and possibly Texas to lose the Big 12 championship to Oklahoma State.

Imagine going 12-0 and it not being enough. Imagine running through the SEC schedule for the third straight year, including beating three ranked teams (Missouri, Ole Miss, Tennessee) in consecutive weeks, and it still not being enough. Having a win over Oklahoma on the resume this season might’ve helped if the game against the Sooners hadn’t been dropped. But maybe not. Georgia might be in this position, regardless.

They have to beat Alabama.

Something seems very normal about that.

“Doesn’t matter,” senior Sedric Van Pran. “At the end of the day, the goal is to try to win the SEC championship.”

“I don’t know,” quarterback Carson Beck said when asked if he thought the Bulldogs had proved enough to the committee. “Obviously, we have the SEC Championship Game next week, and we’ll just go into that and try to be 1-0. If we gotta win, we gotta win. That’s all I’m worried about. We’ve had a good season up to this point. 12-0, undefeated, celebrate that. But we have a big game next week.”

The Alabama game may have been on everybody’s mind at the wrong time.

Smart was minus a handful of injured regulars, including wide receivers Ladd McConkey and Rara Thomas. He sat his best player, Brock Bowers, who played the last two weeks after returning from ankle surgery. Smart said Bowers was “beat up” and “more sore this week than he’s been.”

When asked if Bowers would have played if this was a championship, Smart said, “This was a championship. The state championship.”

Not sure anybody in the room bought that one. It seems more likely Smart wanted Bowers as healthy as possible for next week. But moving on.

The ripple effect of missing three of his best weapons was illustrated by Beck’s stat line: He threw for a season-low 175 yards and attempted a low 20 passes (with 13 completions). He was intercepted once, one of two Georgia turnovers that Tech converted into touchdown drives. Running backs Kendall Milton (156 yards, two touchdowns) and Daijun Edwards (55, one TD) carried the load.

“We didn’t exactly look the way we wanted to,” Beck said.

No, they didn’t, not on either side of the ball. Georgia Tech may deserve some credit for that, but that’s not going to figure into the playoff committee’s analysis. There are too many undefeated and one-loss teams near the top. Strange as it sounds after a 12-0 season, Georgia still has to prove something next week.

(Photo of coach Kirby Smart and Brock Bowers leaving the field after Georgia’s 31-23 win against Georgia Tech: Jeffrey Vest / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)