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Georgia rises to top of College Football Playoff rankings

On3 imageby:Jake Rowe•11/08/22•

JakeMRowe

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Photo by Tony Walsh

Georgia is back in a familiar spot after Saturday’s takedown of then-No. 1 Tennessee. The Bulldogs now occupy the top spot of the College Football Playoff rankings, taking over that a week later than a season ago.

Ohio State is No. 2 and Michigan is No. 3. Those two teams will lock horns on November 29. TCU jumps from No. 7 to No. 4 this week, completing an undefeated top four.

Two Georgia victims, Tennessee and Oregon, come in at No. 5 and No. 6, respectively. LSU, Georgia’s projected opponent in the SEC Championship game, is No. 7. USC is at No., Alabama at No. 9, and Clemson at No. 10.

Kirby Smart and company have been here before. They were ranked No. 1 from week 10 through the entire regular season in 2021. Georgia lost that spot when it fell to Alabama in the SEC Championship game but still made the College Football Playoff as the No. 3 seed.

Wins over Michigan in the Orange Bowl and Alabama in the National Championship game got the Bulldogs back up there again to end the year. Georgia entered the 2022 season ranked No. 3 in both polls.

Now it’s No. 1 for the Bulldogs across the board. The AP and coaches’ polls had Georgia ranked No. 1 last week but the College Football Playoff committee disagreed, placing Tennessee and its two wins over top-10 teams over UGA’s one such win. Georgia now has two big-time victories over the Vols and Oregon, the two most impressive in College Football if you look at the rankings.

Speaking of looking at rankings, Kirby Smart knows that there are certain things that his players won’t be able to ignore. But not much, if any, time will be wasted talking about getting to the top spot.

“We just don’t talk about it much,” Smart said on Monday. “They understand it’s wasted energy when you talk about it. And you guys want to write about it, do all that. You just focus on Mississippi State. And, like, what do we have to do to play well against them? What do we have to do to play well on the road in the SEC? Those are the focus. That’s nothing but a number and a distraction and it’s irrelevant. It just really doesn’t matter. They see it. But they don’t get it discussed around here. Because I think the more you talk about it, the more attention you bring to it.”

The Bulldogs have three games left in the 2022 regular season. It will travel to Mississippi State this Saturday with kickoff set for 7 p.m. ET on ESPN. A trip to Kentucky follows on November 19. Kickoff there has been set for 3:30 p.m. ET on CBS. Georgia will then end the regular season at home vs. Georgia Tech.

Dating back to the 2020 season, Georgia has won 24 regular season games in a row. It’s three wins away from its second straight undefeated regular season. The Bulldogs have also won 27 of their last 28 games.

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