According to ESPN, Georgia still has a 73.9% chance to make the College Football Playoff despite having two losses and currently being on the outside looking in.
Georgia has three games remaining and has played the toughest schedule in the country. The Bulldogs are ranked No. 12 in the latest playoff rankings and have a golden opportunity to solidify their playoff hopes with a win over the Tennessee Volunteers on Saturday.
If Georgia wins against Tennessee, then wins out against UMass and Georgia Tech, then the Bulldogs are pretty much locks to make the playoff. Georgia would have over a 99% chance to make the playoff in this scenario (assumes UGA misses the SEC championship). UGA would have a 98% chance to host a first-round playoff game.
If Georgia wins out and loses in the SEC championship, then UGA has a 96% chance to make the playoff and a 75% chance to host a first-round playoff game.
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If the Tennessee Volunteers beat the Georgia Bulldogs for the first time since 2016, then UGA’s playoff hopes take a major hit. Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports
A loss against Tennessee means UGA is out of the SEC title race. The Bulldogs would not really control their own destiny with three losses. Georgia’s playoff odds drop to 46% with a loss (assumes Georgia wins out against UMass and Georgia Tech).
A three-loss Georgia team would be ranked behind teams like Ole Miss, Alabama and Tennessee because they’ve all beat UGA head-to-head, so that would be tough, but not impossible for Georgia to overcome.
Assuming Georgia wins out, a win or loss against Tennessee would swing Georgia’s playoff odds by 53%.
The Georgia Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big. Here’s a look at May 16, 2025, results for each game:
Winning Mega Millions numbers from May 16 drawing
02-22-42-62-66, Mega Ball: 14
Check Mega Millions payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Cash 3 numbers from May 16 drawing
Midday: 5-5-7
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Evening: 1-7-8
Night: 7-2-4
Check Cash 3 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Cash 4 numbers from May 16 drawing
Midday: 1-6-9-2
Evening: 6-0-9-5
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Night: 6-6-2-9
Check Cash 4 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Cash4Life numbers from May 16 drawing
01-21-25-26-36, Cash Ball: 03
Check Cash4Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Cash Pop numbers from May 16 drawing
Early Bird: 09
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Matinee: 01
Drive Time: 06
Primetime: 09
Night Owl: 11
Check Cash Pop payouts and previous drawings here.
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Winning Georgia FIVE numbers from May 16 drawing
Midday: 7-3-6-4-0
Evening: 7-4-6-7-6
Check Georgia FIVE payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Fantasy 5 numbers from May 16 drawing
06-13-15-25-33
Check Fantasy 5 payouts and previous drawings here.
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Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your prize
Prizes under $601: Can be claimed at any Georgia Lottery retail location. ALL PRIZES can be claimed by mail to: Georgia Lottery Corporation, P.O. Box 56966, Atlanta, GA 30343.
Prizes over $600: Must be claimed at Georgia Lottery Headquarters or any Georgia Lottery district office or mailed to the Georgia Lottery for payment.
When are the Georgia Lottery drawings held?
Powerball: 10:59 p.m. ET on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
Mega Millions: 11 p.m. ET on Tuesday and Friday.
Cash 3 (Midday): 12:29 p.m. ET daily.
Cash 3 (Evening): 6:59 p.m. ET daily.
Cash 3 (Night): 11:34 p.m. ET daily.
Cash 4 (Midday): 12:29 p.m. ET daily.
Cash 4 (Evening): 6:59 p.m. ET daily.
Cash 4 (Night): 11:34 p.m. ET daily.
Cash 4 Life: 9 p.m. ET daily.
Cash Pop (Early Bird): 8 a.m. ET daily.
Cash Pop (Matinee): 1 p.m. ET daily.
Cash Pop (Drive Time): 5 p.m. ET daily.
Cash Pop (Primetime): 8 p.m. ET daily.
Cash Pop (Night Owl): 11:59 p.m. ET daily.
Georgia FIVE (Midday): 12:29 p.m. ET daily.
Georgia FIVE (Evening): 6:59 p.m. ET daily.
Fantasy 5: 11:34 p.m. ET daily.
Jumbo Bucks Lotto: 11 p.m. ET on Monday and Thursday.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Georgia editor. You can send feedback using this form. Our News Automation and AI team would love to hear from you. Take this survey and share your thoughts with us.
A huge search is underway for a Georgia father of five who appears to have vanished while kayaking on a lake long rumored to be haunted.
Dustin Valencia, 43, was reported missing Wednesday by his wife after he didn’t show up to pick up his children from school — with cops then finding his car parked at Little Ridge Park on Lake Lanier, 11 Alive reported
Evidence suggested that Valencia had gone kayaking on the lake, but his inflatable raft was nowhere to be seen, according to authorities.
Dustin Valencia, 43, was reported missing Wednesday by his wife after he didn’t show up to pick up his kids from school. Courtesy Valencia family
A huge ongoing search was launched Thursday on land and water, with multiple units using drones and specialist marine search equipment.
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Lake Lanier, where Valencia disappeared, was built in the 1950s over submerged towns, forests, and cemeteries — and has been a location for eerie scenes in the Netflix drama “Ozark,” CNN previously reported.
Since 1994, over 200 people have died in the lake’s waters — with locals long suggesting the lake is haunted.
One of the most-repeated legends is the “Lady of the Lake,” supposedly the ghost of a woman whose car crashed into the lake who has since been spotted restlessly wandering at night in a blue dress.
Friends say Valencia, a triathlete, was in peak condition.
“A group of us met at his church for a vigil, prayed, and then we left to come find him,” Cat Fritts, a friend who last saw Valencia early Tuesday morning during a workout, told WBSTV about the hunt to find him.
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“He’s got five kids. I can’t imagine what his family is going through. I think they would want everyone to know and go look for him and spread the word,” she said.
The Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office is urging anyone who spots a stray inflatable kayak to contact their office.
ATLANTA — A pregnant woman in Georgia was declared brain-dead after a medical emergency and doctors have kept her on life support for three months to allow enough time for the baby to be born and comply with Georgia’s strict anti-abortion law, family members say.
The case is the latest consequence of abortion bans introduced in some states since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade three years ago.
Adriana Smith, a 30-year-old mother and nurse, was declared brain-dead – meaning she is legally dead – in February, her mother, April Newkirk, told Atlanta TV station WXIA.
Newkirk said her daughter had intense headaches more than three months ago and went to Atlanta’s Northside Hospital, where she received medication and was released. The next morning, her boyfriend woke to her gasping for air and called 911. Emory University Hospital determined she had blood clots in her brain and she was later declared brain-dead.
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Emory University Hospital Midtown is seen on Thursday, May 15, 2025, in Atlanta.
AP Photo/Brynn Anderson
Newkirk said Smith is now 21 weeks pregnant. Removing breathing tubes and other life-saving devices would likely kill the fetus.
Northside did not respond to a request for comment Thursday. Emory Healthcare said it could not comment on an individual case because of privacy rules, but released a statement saying it “uses consensus from clinical experts, medical literature, and legal guidance to support our providers as they make individualized treatment recommendations in compliance with Georgia’s abortion laws and all other applicable laws. Our top priorities continue to be the safety and wellbeing of the patients we serve.”
Georgia’s abortion ban
Smith’s family says Emory doctors have told them they are not allowed to stop or remove the devices that are keeping her breathing because state law bans abortion after cardiac activity can be detected – generally around six weeks into pregnancy.
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The law was adopted in 2019 but not enforced until after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, opening the door to state abortion bans. Georgia’s ban includes an exception if an abortion is necessary to maintain the life of the woman.
Smith’s family, including her five-year-old son, still visit her in the hospital.
Newkirk said doctors told the family that the fetus has fluid on the brain and that they’re concerned about his health.
“She’s pregnant with my grandson. But he may be blind, may not be able to walk, may not survive once he’s born,” Newkirk said. She has not commented on whether the family wants Smith removed from life support.
Who has the right to make these decisions?
Monica Simpson, executive director of SisterSong, the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging Georgia’s abortion law, said the situation is problematic.
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“Her family deserved the right to have decision-making power about her medical decisions,” Simpson said in a statement. “Instead, they have endured over 90 days of retraumatization, expensive medical costs, and the cruelty of being unable to resolve and move toward healing.”
Lois Shepherd, a bioethicist and law professor at the University of Virginia, said she does not believe Georgia’s law requires life support in this case.
But she said whether a state could insist Smith remains on the breathing and other devices is uncertain since the 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe including that fetuses do not have the rights of people.
“Pre-Dobbs, a fetus didn’t have any rights,” Shepherd said. “And the state’s interest in fetal life could not be so strong as to overcome other important rights, but now we don’t know.”
What is the fetus’ prognosis?
Brain death in pregnancy is rare. Even rarer still are cases in which doctors aim to prolong the pregnancy after a woman is declared brain-dead.
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“It’s a very complex situation, obviously, not only ethically but also medically,” said Dr. Vincenzo Berghella, director of maternal fetal medicine at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.
A 2021 review that Berghella co-authored scoured medical literature going back decades for cases in which doctors declared a woman brain-dead and aimed to prolong her pregnancy. It found 35.
Of those, 27 resulted in a live birth, the majority either immediately declared healthy or with normal follow-up tests. But Berghella also cautioned that the Georgia case was much more difficult because the pregnancy was less far along when the woman was declared brain dead. In the 35 cases he studied, doctors were able to prolong the pregnancy by an average of just seven weeks before complications forced them to intervene.
“It’ s just hard to keep the mother out of infection, out of cardiac failure,” he said.
Berghella also found a case from Germany that resulted in a live birth when the woman was declared brain dead at nine weeks of pregnancy.
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A spotlight on Georgia’s abortion law
Georgia’s law confers personhood on a fetus. Those who favor personhood say fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses should be considered people with the same rights as those already born.
Georgia state Sen. Ed Setzler, a Republican who sponsored the 2019 law, said he supported Emory’s interpretation.
“I think it is completely appropriate that the hospital do what they can to save the life of the child,” Setzler said. “I think this is an unusual circumstance, but I think it highlights the value of innocent human life. I think the hospital is acting appropriately.”
Setzler said he believes it is sometimes acceptable to remove life support from someone who is brain dead, but that the law is “an appropriate check” because the mother is pregnant. He said Smith’s relatives have “good choices,” including keeping the child or offering it for adoption.
Georgia’s abortion ban has been in the spotlight before.
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Last year, ProPublica reported that two Georgia women died after they did not get proper medical treatment for complications from taking abortion pills. The stories of Amber Thurman and Candi Miller entered into the presidential race, with Democrat Kamala Harris saying the deaths were the result of the abortion bans that went into effect in Georgia and elsewhere after Dobbs.
Abortion bans in other states
The situation echoes a case in Texas more than a decade ago when a brain-dead woman was kept on maintenance measures for about two months because she was pregnant. A judge eventually ruled that the hospital keeping her alive against her family’s wishes was misapplying state law, and life support was removed.
Twelve states are enforcing abortion bans at all stages of pregnancy, with limited exceptions. Georgia is one of four with a ban that kicks in at or around six weeks into pregnancy – often before women realize they’re pregnant.
Last year, the Texas Supreme Court ruled unanimously against a group of women who challenged that state’s abortion ban, saying the exceptions were being interpreted so narrowly that they were denied abortion access as they dealt with serious pregnancy complications. This year, the state Senate has passed a bill that seeks to clarify when abortions are allowed.
South Dakota produced a video to inform doctors about when exceptions should apply. Abortion rights groups have blasted it.
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The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in December over whether the federal law that requires hospitals to provide abortion in emergency medical situations should apply. A ruling is expected in coming months.
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Mulvihill reported from Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Associated Press journalists Kate Brumback, Sudhin Thanawala, Sharon Johnson and Charlotte Kramon contributed.