The No. 4-ranked University of Georgia Bulldogs, 2021 and 2022 National Champions and 2022 and 2024 SEC Champions, won their game yesterday, 28-6. The AP sportswriters dropped them to No. 6.
I know, I know, I know - early seasons polls never mattered and in these modern times of 12-team playoffs, no polls that aren't the Selection Committee rankings are just popularity contests. But it's still a little galling to see Oregon (fucking Oregon, man) catapulted to the new No. 4, and while Miami holds steady at No. 5, the Dawgs are dropped to No. 6.
Not that it matters.
More about Belt Theory: One way to look at lineal champions is to trace one championship crown from winner to winner over the decades. That method goes from Rutgers, 1869, to, surprisingly, South Florida today. But another way to think about it is by individual-year champions. In 2021 and again in 2022, the Bulldogs won the National Championship and were literally given championship rings. But what if the rules were that if a team subsequently beat them, they'd have to hand over those rings? And then that team would have to turn the rings over to another team when they lost?
If that were the case, Georgia would have had to turn over their two championship rings to the Alabama Crimson Tide after the 2023 SEC Championship game. Bat Bama wouldn't have been able to keep the rings for long, because they subsequently lost their next game, the CFP Semifinal, to Michigan and the Wolverines would have gotten Georgia's two championship rings.
In Week 2 of the 2024 season, Michigan lost to Texas, and then on Week 8, Georgia beat Texas, 30-15, in Austin. Many people, myself very much included, celebrated Georgia's win, but few realized that with the win, Georgia also got its two championship rings back under the lineal rule.
The story could have (should have) ended there, but unfortunately, tragically, Georgia lost to Ole Miss two games later and the Rebels took possession of the rings. But Ole Miss then lost the rings the next weekend to Florida, who just lost the rings to South Florida on Saturday, and the Bulls now have Georgia's two championship rings from 2021 and 2022. The Bulls also won the granddaddy lineal belt in that game, the one that goes all the way back to Rutgers in 1869. The Georgia Bulldogs want their two championship rings back, and wouldn't mind getting their paws on that lineal belt, too.
As I wrote on Saturday, there's no clear route for that to happen. South Florida plays No. 5 Miami next weekend and South Florida will lose. There may be a bittersweet moment when Miami quarterback Carson Beck holds the two rings of his former team, but he wasn't the starting QB for those championship years.
Miami doesn't play anyone on Georgia's schedule this year and the Dawgs first chance to win their rings
back a second time may be the 2025 playoffs, should both teams quality and the seedings align so that they play each other before either is eliminated. Georgia may have to win them back from a team that beats the Hurricanes, or they may have to wait until 2026 or later before they get the rings back.
Yes, this is all fantasy and "what if" speculation. But it does make watching the games more interesting to me and adds another dimension of meaning to games other that just my team - why else would I care about South Florida vs. Miami?
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