Georgia’s path to the SEC Championship
SEC Championship weekend quickly approaches as the Georgia Bulldogs prepare for their fourth consecutive appearance in the conference final. Though this is familiar territory for the Bulldogs, the team’s path to the game was far from traditional when compared to past seasons.
Georgia entered the 2024 college football season as No. 1 in the AP Poll and stayed there for the first three weeks of the season. It wasn’t until the SEC’s newest team, the Texas Longhorns, took over the No. 1 spot in week four did Georgia’s season begin its ups and downs.
Georgia initially fell from the top of the rankings due to a close one-point win over Kentucky that, in contrast to Texas’ dominant win over reigning national champion Michigan, seemed to mark a different Georgia team than years past. Only a few weeks later when Georgia faced Alabama and lost 41-34 in an all-time classic did Georgia take its first big drop of the season down to No. 5 in week six.
Fast forward, Georgia rose again to the top two when the team traveled to Austin and delivered then-No. 1 Texas its first and only loss of the season thus far in week eight. Georgia went on to beat Florida and Tennessee, but suffered a 28-10 loss to Ole Miss, handing the Bulldogs their first multi-loss regular season since 2020.
This created an interesting scenario going into the SEC Championship with a potential four-way tie between Georgia, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Texas. Three-loss teams such as Alabama and Ole Miss were out of contention as no three-loss team could be in the championship. Georgia took the first spot in the SEC championship with only two losses and the tiebreaker over Tennessee, having defeated the Vols in a head-to-head matchup.
Texas’s path to the SEC Championship
Texas’ path to the SEC Championship game was a bit more straightforward due to the team’s conference-best 7–1 SEC record. Texas began the year in its new conference with high expectations and so far they have met those expectations, reaching the conference championship game in the team’s first year.
Texas began the year riding high off of the successes of last season, starting the year at No. 4 in the AP Poll. From this position, Texas quickly rose, acquiring the No. 1 spot in week four and holding the ranking for four total weeks. It was when Texas suffered its first loss of the season at home to Georgia that Texas dropped to its lowest positions of the year in the coming weeks at No. 5 and 6.
Texas dominated in the SEC for the rest of the regular season, aside from a near-blunder against Vanderbilt the week after the Georgia loss. This led to Texas possibly joining the aforementioned four-way tie scenario that has now played out over the past few weeks with the two-loss SEC teams. Texas A&M, one of the three remaining two-loss teams in the SEC, was the final barrier between Texas and an SEC Championship appearance. With a win, Texas A&M would have taken the conference final spot versus Georgia, since a victory over the Longhorns would have given Texas its second conference loss and the Aggies a head-to-head tiebreaker.
After pulling off the victory and remaining the only one-loss team in the conference, Texas had written its ticket to the conference championship and will have the opportunity for revenge and a first-round bye in the College Football Playoff with a victory over Georgia this Saturday.
