We're No. 4!

 

With No. 5 Georgia's 35-10 beat-down of No. 10 Texas, and No. 11 Oklahoma's 23-21 upset of No. 4 Alabama, Georgia (9-1) moves up from the fifth spot to the new No. 4 in yesterday's NCAA Selection Committee poll. Alabama fell to No. 10 and Oklahoma moved up to No. 8, while Texas fell to No. 17 and most likely out of playoff contention.

The three remaining undefeated teams, Ohio State, Indiana, and Texas A&M, are ranked 1, 2, and 3, respectively. 

Here's the beautiful part, though: at No. 4, Georgia earns a first-round bye in the playoffs. Even better, the new seedings move the Bulldogs out of the same grouping as Alabama, our kryptonite team and sole loss of the season, so instead of facing them in the quarterfinals, the Dawgs would instead get the winner of No. 5 Texas Tech (10-1) vs. No. 24 Tulane (8-2, and only in there as the fifth-highest ranked conference champion). After that, Georgia would play whoever emerges from the Ohio State-Notre Dame-Oklahoma games, probably, but not at all definitely, Ohio State. The Championship Game would be against the eventual winner of the Indiana-A&M-Ole Miss-Oregon- Alabama-Miami series, and I'm not even going to venture a guess as to who'd that be, other than noting our odds of having to play Alabama again this year are greatly reduced.  

There's still two more regular-season games to go, and possibly the conference championships, so things can still change, but this playoff bracket is far better for Georgia than the previous bracket when we were No. 5.

As for the SEC championship, if unranked Auburn beats No. 10 Alabama in the final week of the season, or if No. 17 Texas beats No. 3 A&M, the Bulldogs are in. If not, Georgia is in only if our regular-season opponents' winning percentage is better than that of the other contenders. Personally, as long as the Bulldogs don't need the game to maintain their No. 4 ranking, I'd just as soon skip the game and get an extra week's rest, so that, together with the first-round bye in the playoffs, we enter the post-season well rested and recovered from all our injuries.