ATHENS — Kirby Smart isn’t all that worried about the initial College Football Playoff rankings that will come out on Tuesday night.
The rankings, which drop at 7 p.m. ET, will come just after the Bulldogs finish wrapping up practice. Smart will be far more preoccupied with his ongoing preparations for No. 14 Missouri on Saturday.
“We look at all our tape,” Smart said on Saturday. “We watch practice, and then we go third down plan and go over that. I don’t even see it (rankings). I get text messages about it and things like that, but we all know the deal. You’ve got to win the games you play and take care of that. The rest is out of our hands.”
But from a national perspective, there’s real intrgue as to where Georgia will land in the initial rankings.
Georgia has been the No. 1 ranked team in every AP Poll and Coaches Poll so far this season. There’s a very plausible chance Georgia does not rank as the No. 1 team in the first rankings tonight.
“Georgia also has a bit of a strength-of-schedule issue (the Bulldogs’ SOS is 88th), but it still has a 39% chance of finishing 12-0 -- honestly, it should probably be higher than that considering the Dawgs’ propensity for showing up when they need to -- and a 48% chance of winning the SEC,” ESPN’s Bill Connelly wrote.
Ohio State and Michigan both have convincing cases to also be ranked No. 1. The Buckeyes have far more impressive wins than Georgia, as they’ve beaten Notre Dame and Penn State. While Ohio State hasn’t been as dominant as it has in past seasons, its defense combined with the heroics of wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. make them one of the top teams in the country.
As for Michigan, it has won every game by at least 24 points. Its schedule though is even weaker than Georgia’s and the Wolverines are currently in the midst of a sign-stealing scandal.
Georgia, in theory, has earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to being one of the best teams in college football. The Bulldogs demolished Florida on Saturday. They did so without star tight end Brock Bowers, who is expected to be out once again on Saturday with an ankle injury.
“Georgia has played well against its toughest competition, though, and it proved Saturday against Florida that it can be a top-four team even without injured tight end Brock Bowers,” ESPN’s Heather Dinich said. “How the committee evaluates Florida and Kentucky, which are both three-loss teams, will factor into where the Bulldogs are placed. Those are also the only two FBS opponents Georgia has defeated that have a winning record.”
Georgia will have opportunities in the coming weeks to add to its resume. The next three opponents on Georgia’s schedule are all ranked at the moment and all have winning records. The Bulldogs will be favored in games against Missouri, Ole Miss and a road trip to Tennessee but as Smart said, Georgia still has to go out and win those games.
There is also the potential SEC championship matchup, which could see Georgia play either Alabama or LSU. While it will be a big talking point tonight, Georgia’s schedule shouldn’t be an issue for much longer.
There’s also the fact that Georgia wasn’t the No. 1 ranked team in last season’s first batch of College Football Playoff rankings. Georgia came in as the No. 3 team, despite being the defending champion and undefeated. Tennessee held the No. 1 spot, but that lasted for only a week as the Bulldogs beat them 27-13 in Athens.
Georgia has made each of the past two College Football Playoffs. It knows that the end goal though is to be the No.1 team in the last game of the season and not atop the first batch of College Football Playoff rankings.
