ATHENS — Georgia is going back to the Sugar Bowl.
The College Football Playoff selection committee made it official Sunday afternoon during their sixth and final rankings reveal of the 2024 season. After their 22-19 SEC Championship victory over Texas Saturday night, the Bulldogs were moved up to No. 2 from No. 5 in the CFP ratings and will receive a first-round bye. Georgia will meet the winner of the first-round game between No. 7 seed Notre Dame and No. 10 seed Indiana on New Year’s Day the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. Kickoff is scheduled for 8:45 p.m.
Georgia has played in the Sugar more than any other bowl. The Bulldogs have a 5-6 record in the game. The last appearance came on Jan. 1, 2020, when Georgia defeated Baylor 26-14.
While things turned out well for the Bulldogs thanks to the SEC title, Georgia coach Kirby Smart, like all Power 4 coaches, were critical of how the conference-champion requirement for the top seeds altered the playoff matchups.
“Seed the field and let the byes fall where they may,” Smart suggested to ESPN host Rece Davis during Sunday’s prolonged playoff show. “Look, to say that all these conferences are equal is unjust and unfair. That’s not the case at all. They don’t do it that way in the NCAA basketball tournament. They don’t do it that way in any tournament I’ve been around. It makes no sense.”
In the first year of the 12-team playoff format, the five highest-ranked conference champions become automatic qualifiers. Georgia went in as SEC champion, No. 1 Oregon (13-0) as Big Ten champ, Boise State (12-1) as Mountain West champ, Arizona State (11-2) as Big 12 champ and Clemson (10-3) as champion of the ACC.
Clemson’s dramatic last-second, 34-31 win over then-No. 8 SMU in the ACC title game in Charlotte became the most complicated issue to resolve. Keeping in the Mustangs meant ousting Alabama, which was the highest-ranked at-large team a week ago. The Crimson Tide finished 9-3 under first-year coach Kalen DeBoer.
“We have to understand that, on the conference side, you can’t control who you play or how those teams will be playing,” said CFP selection committee chairman Warde Manuel, who is athletic director at Michigan. “But we also value competition, in the non-conference or the conference. From our perspective, we looked at these last games as a data point to determine how we would rank them. Those teams were not penalized, we looked at how those teams played.”
SMU was tied with three seconds remaining before Clemson kicked a 56-yard game-winning field goal. Alabama did not make the conference championship game because of a 24-3 loss to unranked Oklahoma in Week 13.
Now an analyst for ESPN, retired Alabama coach Nick Saban had a problem with his former team getting left out.
“My question is 15th-ranked strength of schedule (Alabama) versus 60th-ranked strength of schedule (SMU),” Saban said during the live broadcast. “That should have been taken into consideration before they ever played in the championship game. So maybe they should’ve been ranked 12 and if they win the game, they get in and if they lose the game Clemson gets in. But it wasn’t that way and (Alabama) gets penalized.”
Texas (11-2), which lost to Georgia 22-19 in overtime in the SEC title game Saturday night, dropped just one spot to No. 3 and goes into the playoff as the highest-ranked, at-large team. The Longhorns were seeded fifth and will play host to Clemson in a first-round game in Austin.
“The reality of it is, if we went just off of ranking, we would be the third seed in this tournament, as opposed to the 5th seed,” Sarkisian said.
It looks like the biggest winner in terms of the way the seedings worked out was Penn State. The Nittany Lions (11-2) will host 11th-seeded SMU at home in the opening round. A big favorite in that matchup, Penn State would draw No. 9 ranked Boise State (12-1), the Mountain West champion, in the Fiesta Bowl.
Meanwhile, Big Ten champion Oregon will have to face the winner of No. 6 Ohio State vs. No. 7 Tennessee in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1. It seems counterintuitive for the nation’s top-ranked, top-seeded and only undefeated team to have a more difficult path than the team it beat to win the conference championship.
“What an opportunity, right?” said Oregon coach Dan Lanning, who was defensive coordinator at Georgia from 2019-2021. “Look, on our world, we talk about red light-green light. Focus on the things you can control. That’s what we’re going to focus on. Winning a national championship game is not supposed to be easy.”
2024 CFP final rankings
1. Oregon (13-0) -- Big Ten champ & No. 1 seed will face Ohio State-Tennessee winner in Rose Bowl
2. Georgia (11-2) -- SEC champ & No. 2 seed will face Indiana-Notre Dame winner in Sugar Bowl
3. Texas (11-2) -- SEC runner-up is seeded No. 5 and hosts Clemson in first round
4. Penn State (11-2) -- Big Ten runner-up is 6 seed and will host SMU in first round
5. Notre Dame (11-1) -- Independent will be No. 7 seed and host Indiana
6. Ohio State (10-2) -- Gets last spot as home host as No. 8 seed
7. Tennessee (10-2) -- Traveling to Columbus, Ohio, as No. 9 seed
8. Indiana (11-1) -- As No. 10 seed, will meet Irish in South Bend
9. Boise State (12-1) -- Mountain West champions are No. 3 seed in Fiesta Bowl
10. SMU (11-2) -- ACC runner-up edges out Alabama for last spot
11. Alabama (9-3) -- Misses playoff for third time since 2019
12. Arizona State (11-2) -- Big 12 champions are No. 4 seed in Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl
13. Miami (10-2) -- Late losses leave Hurricanes on outside looking in
14. Ole Miss (9-3) -- Rebels squeezed out of first-ever playoff berth
15. South Carolina (9-3) -- One of SEC’s hottest teams
16. Clemson (10-3) -- ACC Champions are the No. 12 seed
17. BYU (10-2)
18. Iowa State (10-3)
19. Missouri (9-3)
20. Illinois (9-3)
21. Syracuse (9-3)
22. Army (11-1)
23. Colorado (9-3)
24. UNLV (10-3)
25. Memphis (10-2)
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
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