Georgia is back in the College Football Playoff field, as the Bulldogs will be the No. 2 seed in the inaugural College Football Playoff rankings.

The Bulldogs earn the No. 2 seed after beating Texas 22-19 to win the SEC Championship. The victory ensured Georgia’s place as one of the four-highest-rated conference champions, giving Georgia the added benefit of a bye week.

The Bulldogs are expected to play in the Sugar Bowl as the SEC champion. The game is set for an 8:45 p.m. ET start on Jan. 1.

The time off should greatly benefit Georgia, who saw quarterback Carson Beck leave Saturday’s game with a right arm injury. Beck will undergo an MRI on Sunday to determine the severity of the injury.

“Yeah, he’s got an upper extremity injury,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said after the game. “We don’t know to what extent. Basically, we looked at it in there, and it looked okay. But he couldn’t have grip strength and throw the ball in the locker room. So it was a little bit painful for that. So we need to find out exactly what’s going on.”

As for who Georgia will face, the Bulldogs will take on the winner of the 7-10 game, which will matchup Notre Dame and Indiana.

Georgia was one of three SEC teams to make the field, as the Bulldogs were joined by No. 5 Texas and No. 9 Tennessee

The other three teams to earn byes were Oregon, who is the No. 1 overall seed as the Big Ten champion, Boise State, who won the Mountain West and is the No. 3 seed, and Arizona State as the No. 4 seed.

The seven at-large teams are: Texas, Penn State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Tennessee Indiana and SMU. The final team in the field is Clemson, who is the No. 12 seed after winning the ACC Championship game on Saturday. Alabama was the first team out.

The first-round games will be played on Dec. 20 and Dec. 21. On the same half of Georgia’s bracket is No. 3 Boise State, No. 6 Penn State and No. 11 SMU. Should Georgia win its quarterfinal game, the Bulldogs would potentially play one of those teams in the semifinals.

This is the fourth time that Georgia has made the College Football Playoff under Kirby Smart. The Bulldogs have made it to the national championship game in each of the previous three trips. Georgia won back-to-back national titles in 2021 and 2022.

The College Football Playoff semifinals will be played on Jan. 9 and Jan. 10, while the national championship game will be played back in Atlanta on Jan. 20.

Final College Football Playoff seeds