Not that it’ll happen in a million years, but would I take any pleasure out of this scenario?
Conversation topic from late last night with a bunch of other college football writers: Georgia still has an outside shot to get to the BCS title game. In fact, the Dawgs might even have a scenario where they could overtake an undefeated Notre Dame in the polls. With more Saturday by USC and Michigan State, ND’s potential top wins now may not even be ranked in the top 25 in early December. And if ND, in fact, beats the Trojans USC would be at least a four-loss team and probably unranked. At that point, ND, which just survived triple-OT at home against a bad Pitt team, could conceivably end up with wins over one two ranked teams all season: Oklahoma at Stanford, and ND needs the Cardinal to finish strong. Obviously, the 7-2 Cardinal could do the Irish and K-State and Georgia a big favor by knocking off Oregon in two weeks, then lose two of its remaining three (against No. 13 Oregon State, at Oregon and then at UCLA), David Shaw’s team also could slip out of the top 25.
The other problem for ND is the timing. Everyone else is playing on Championship Saturday but the Irish. I don’t think you could leapfrog a one-loss SEC champ over an unbeaten ND, but I’m not so sure. If Georgia goes out and upsets No. 1 Alabama, there would be a lot of momentum for the Dawgs because voters often get so caught up in the moment.
Yeeahhh… I thinks I might.
Get The Picture 
ND looks slow and was tremendously helped by a very bad interference call.
LikeLike
There is a reason that the Irish “look” slow, Hahira, and that is because they are SLOW! Pitt had them licked and in AT LEAST the 3rd game this season the Catholics benefitted from what has to be seen as biased officiating. The Purdue and Stanford games were similarly botched. And let’s all remember that this was a Pitt group that lost soundly to Youngstown St. (the other Penguins), 31-17 & Cincy, 34-10.
LikeLike
Realistically the Irish have to lose no matter how weak their schedule is in reality. The perception out there is that “Notre Dame has the hardest schedule in all of college football.” The Dawgs won’t jump them without a ND loss. The media will not allow it.
LikeLike
You are right Mr. Mayor. Not going to happen. UGA needs Irish to lose…frankly all of the unbeatens less Louisville need to lose. And speaking of Louisville, think that might have helped our SOS more than Buffalo?
LikeLike
I’m sorry, what? Please point me to ONE analyst or media member who has said that Notre Dame has the toughest schedule in college football. I’ve not heard one person say that. Lou Holtz doesn’t count.
LikeLike
Well you named the worst offender right there. Mark May and Reece Davis sit there and nod whenever Holtz says that BS, too. Several of the radio guys just love ND–Jack Arute and Mark Packer are prime examples.
LikeLike
Remember 2007.? Remember the Media.? Remember ESPN.?.
In my opinion, there is no way in that the Dawgs make it to the MNCG.
ESPN & the Media will do whatever they can to keep the Dawgs out.
Winning the SEC Championship will work for me (make me happy & satisfied).
LikeLike
Stuart Mandel has started on this garbage already:
“Georgia (8-1, 6-1 SEC) all but wrapped up the SEC East with a 37-10 win over Ole Miss (5-4, 2-3). All that remains for the Bulldogs is a trip to 2-7 Auburn. In the coming weeks, you’ll likely hear chatter that the Dawgs would deserve to jump some or all of Oregon, Kansas State and Notre Dame if they manage to upset No. 1 Alabama in Atlanta. But if that happens, note that seven of Georgia’s eight wins have come against the following teams: Buffalo (1-7), Missouri (4-5), FAU (2-6), Vanderbilt (5-4), Tennessee (4-5), Kentucky (1-8) and Ole Miss (5-4).”
LikeLike
If we lose the SECCG and FL goes to the Sugar Bowl, it will be one of the most epic hosings ever. There is no logic behind penailzing us for making our conference championship game.
LikeLike
If Florida beats FSU, and we lose the SEC CG, you can count on Florida or LSU going to New Orleans. The number of SEC CG runners up that have gone to the Sugar Bowl are few and far between….08 and 09 and only because both losers were undefeated coming into Atlanta. Georgia needs LSU to slip up and FSU and Clemson to whup up on our rivals.
Of course, beating Auburn better happen first.
LikeLike
Let’s just win the Alabama State Championship and make the matter moot.
LikeLike
And win out the regular season.
LikeLike
Would be nice if Yech played them to a tie.
LikeLike
+1
LikeLike
Not. A. Prayer. The WWL would probably be lobbying them over us even if both of us had a loss.
LikeLike
True dat!
LikeLike
A one-loss Georgia would NOT vault over an undefeated ND in the polls. It would not be allowed. That is all.
LikeLike
35-7
LikeLike
Sadly, you are right on — the Dawgs held their fate in their very own paws.
LikeLike
Thank you!
Seriously folks…I’m as Disney as they come, but there’s a whole lot of shaking up (2007-esque) that would have to happen in front of us for it to even matter. We had our chance in the eastern Columbia and blew it in epic fashion. I’m just gonna worry about getting to Atlanta and giving ‘Bama our best shot. If we happen to knock off the Tide in Atlanta, I’m not going to be upset if Georgia doesn’t get in if two of Notre Dame/K-State/Oregon stay undefeated because the voters hold 35-7 against us (as they rightfully should).
LikeLike
I respect your position AD but ND didn’t even really beat Stanford and if Pitt can make a chip shot field goal we’re not even having this conversation. Simple fairness AD. UGA is miles better than the Irish yet they are being pumped up and we are being put down. The point is ND loses to either Florida or South Carolina (or both if ND played both)…period. If the Domers played Vandy’s schedule they’d lose at least 3 games–maybe more. They are a joke and the media has sold the nation a line of hooey about them. I don’t want to get sacrilegious but…please Lord let UGA play ND in the BCSNCG…PLEASE!!!
LikeLike
Which is more likely with our luck? I would have said even money the year (IF the miracle would happen and we win the SEC) OF COURSE three other teams would be undefeated to our one loss. Could almost guarantee that scenario. Almost makes it likely it happen just so we can get screwed.
LikeLike
Have faith. The odds are still that some of the undefeated teams will lose and if 2 lose 1 game that is all we need if we beat Bama. Winning out and beating Bama–that’s the key.
LikeLike
“Winning out and beating Bama–that’s the key.”
Amen! We can only control what we can control. One game at a time.
LikeLike
achieveYou should never have a goal that you do not control the chance to achieve. Our goal is to win the SEC, that is the highest achievement you can earn on the field of play. Win Saturday, beat Bama, celebrate a wonderful year. That is all.
I know there are people who beg for more, but you have to be awarded anything beyond that. We would have earned all we could control, you can’t whine about anything else. We have been screwed before by bowls, I don’t care about anything beyond the SEC title. That might change as cfb moves along but for now an SEC title is the highest undisputed title you can hold.
LikeLike
I wholeheartedly agree Mac but it is still a little bit hard to swallow when second rate teams like ND are being promoted for the BCSNCG by media types when the Dawgs are better and are being dissed by media types (see: Stewart Mandel quote above).
LikeLike
ND has never won an SEC title, nevah. That might not matter in Montana but it means they haven’t got creds around heah. I don’t need national media types to legitimize the Dawgs, let’s get SEC #13. Wasn’t it those national media fellows that had Arky in the Top 10? And USC # ?
LikeLike
Edit: USC #1?
LikeLike
Don’t forget their early season love affair with FSU that resulted in them jumping the Dawgs in the polls while not playing superior teams. ESPN is like a fly waiting to land on the next pile of shit to lay their eggs.
LikeLike
That is one poorly written/eddited article. I get the gist though.
I think UGA will get Richte’d this year. Even if we win out, KSU and OSU will be undefeated and we will be out. The haters will have a field day. Some fans we got there.
LikeLike
I hate bad edditing.
LikeLike
Me two.
LikeLike
Their gonna realize they’re mistake soon. Its a common mistake. Maybe they’ll read are comments. Your gonna see!
LikeLike
And who is OSU?
LikeLike
CMR has lost control of the timing of being good.
Even if we win out, it’ll be our luck that KSU and Oregon stay unbeaten. That have been the mantra for UGA teams under CMR, not that it’s his fault. Finish with 1-loss or win the SEC and still get left out of the MNC.
LikeLike
Same as ’07 an early season blowout to a team UGA was capable of playing with cost UGA from being in the driver seat. The team plays some ugly games before finding their footing.
LikeLike
Difference is that no BCS-conference teams finished undefeated in ’07. In fact, most of the major players lost twice that year.
LikeLike
…to ARKANSAS and KENTUCKY.
LikeLike
We need to quit huffin’ & puffin’. The MNC is nowhere in the picture today. Let just take one week at a time – Beat AU! Ok… I love me some coach speak!
LikeLike
Don’t look now, but KSU’s super-efficient QB Colin Klein is questionable (wrist) for this week’s game at the Horny Toads.
LikeLike
Also…the Howdies ain’t a gimme for Alabama.
LikeLike
I don’t see UGA passing an undefeated ND.
However, UGA only needs 2 of the 3 nonSEC undefeateds ranked ahead of UGA to fall which is very possible. Oregon has Oregon St and Stanford. ND could fall to USC. K State could fall especially if Klein is out or not 100%, the Big12 has had some crazy upsets in the past (Iowa St knocks Okie St. out of the BCS CG) TCU, Baylor or Texas would be no less shocking.
LikeLike
+1. K-State still has TCU and Baylor on the road and Texas at home. Baylor would be a big upset but TCU in Ft. Worth is a tough out. Texas is not as good this season as in past years but they are still Texas. K-State still has a way to go to be undefeated.
LikeLike
Mayor, I think you’re right. It may be tough for K-State to finish undefeated and that may be all we need. I don’t know what to think about Notre Dame. If you had asked me at the beginning of the season I would have said they would have lost at least one (and maybe two) by now, probably more. I’m not counting on their loss to USC. I hope it happens but, with the breaks they seem to catch this year, it may not.
LikeLike
Beat AU….
LikeLike
Beat Auburn.
LikeLike
The crackpipe is strong over at CBSSports this morning, I see…
LikeLike
On Saturday, Fowler was already hard-pushing the “No way a one-loss SEC team makes it over two undefeated blah, blah, blah… [I stopped listening].”
If they screw us out of another shot, I think we owe them a serious dick punch.
LikeLike
Every year, there are a few programs who start to count their chickens before they hatch and bitch about being screwed by the BCS right before dropping one they shouldn’t. Please let’s not be one of those and just focus on Auburn. Bluto, please pretty please don’t feed these people any more of this! We need to focus on Auburn. Let the chips fall where they may – AFTER we take care of our own business!
LikeLike
I’ll stop if you can explain to me how the focus of a blogger and some commenters can impact the game. 😉
LikeLike
COTG
LikeLike
Help me here, Stoops…
LikeLike
Sorry. Crossing streams with EDSBS: COTG is Crazy Old Testament God who basically will strike down your season just for giggles (but also to punish hubris). He appears in the form used in Monty Python flixs (esp. Holy Grail). Sorry.
LikeLike
I think you have to believe in magic or karma or something for this to be an issue.
LikeLike
Take a look at our last three years with Au. We had them on the ropes as a team going into ’09 and proved it. In ’10 they slipped in two JC transfers with Cam and Nick. After Nick’s dirty play and Trooper waving his towel/shirt egging him on, we swore revenge. One part came last year at the 35-7 beatdown. The rest of the revenge will be played this week and next year in their stadium.
What better chance in history do we get to stomp their dicks into the mud in front of their home crowd? Enough chance to make it stick in their cheating minds forever. Sic’em Dawgs!
LikeLike
45-7.
LikeLike
Straight to the point today, stoop. I like it. 😉
LikeLike
🙂
LikeLike
I ain’t giving Auburn jack-shit. I want those 10 points.
LikeLike
I whole-heartedly endorse this. I doubt Richt will do it, but I really want the foot on the pedal this Saturday. That 2010 game was infuriating. The foul play. The crowd booing at our injured players. I really, really want us to hang 70 on them in Jordan-Hare. Please, guys, just unleash the fury.
LikeLike
I wouldn’t have thought that Richt would have his starters continuing in the game against Ole Miss, where there is no bad blood. I wouldn’t be too surprised to see him leaving the hounds unleashed if we get up big in Jerdin-Hair.
LikeLike
Beat AU. Remember how they were the last time we played them there. Remember Nick Fairley and his antics. Seniors, tell the story to the freshmen. Let the focus begin. Beat AU.
LikeLike
Wish I had read this before my comment in response to stoop above. You said it better than me.
LikeLike
It seems to me that ESPN is speaking out of both sides of its collective mouth on this. On the one hand, ESPN talking heads say that strength of schedule matters and those teams that have the most difficult schedules should come out on top in selecting who gets into the BCSNCG. Everyone seems to agree that the SEC is the most difficult conference and, ergo, SEC teams play the hardest schedules because they have to play each other thereby making it more likely for the best team to be upset. On the other hand, they say that losing 1 game disqualifies an SEC team from the BCSNCG if teams from lesser conferences remain unbeaten. You can’t have it both ways. They play absolutely no defense in the Big 12 or the PAC 12. To its credit, K-State plays the best D of anybody in those 2 leagues but would only be about in the middle in the SEC in that department. There are probably 5 SEC teams that would beat K-State straight up: Bama, LSU, UGA, South Carolina and FU (and possibly aTm, too). Same for ND. Hell, K-State with basically the same team it has this season got beat by Arky in its bowl game last year. Play a schedule equivalent to an SEC schedule K-State and ND and then you have something to talk about. Until then, you can keep the hypocrisy and put it where the sun don’t shine ESPN.
LikeLike
A Georgia team that shows up for the South Carolina game is probably ranked #2 or maybe even #1 right now given they are currently the highest ranked 1-loss team. Georgia isn’t getting screwed out of anything. They firmly screwed themselves.
LikeLike
Truth (again, sadly).
LikeLike
If UGA had won the USC game, I think we would probably be #3. However, that isn’t what we’re talking about with bad timing.
UF won two MNCs and didn’t go undefeated either time. They lost to Ole Miss for Chrissakes. LSU won a MNC with two losses. Bama got a chance to play for one last year because only LSU was undefeated. An MNC is about luck. Not only does your team need to escape a loss or two, but you need other teams to fall in front of you. That hasn’t happened with UGA.
LikeLike
Been saying this for years when people want to point to lack of crystal football as the reason to run Richt off (Note: I acknowledge that there are other reasons that have sprung up in the last few years that are far more persuasive reasons to run Richt off. I just happen to find the crystal football argument particularly weak.).
2002 UGA team finished as 13-1 SEC Champions with one loss to Florida (finished 8-5 overall and 6-2 in conference) by 7 points at a neutral site. 2003 LSU team finished 13-1 as SEC/National Champions with one loss to Florida (finished 8-5 overall and 6-2 in conference) by 12 points at home. Luck is needed to get that crystal football.
As stated above though, I’m not going to be mad if we miraculously run the table and win the SECCG over ‘Bama and get left out. None of those teams you cited in your example got their doors blown off in their losses like we did in east Columbia this year.
LikeLike
AD if you look at the records for the modern era most of the time the MNC winner has lost one game. Florida has won 3 MNCs in the last 16 years and each one of those teams had 1 loss. Penn State won 2 MNCs and both times it had 1 loss. LSU had 1 loss in ’03 and 2 losses in ’07 but still won the crystal both years. Our fans hold our program to a higher standard than other teams do and that’s not right.
LikeLike
And I humbly submit Ped State had 2 losses in 1981 — Nebraska was hosed on a clear TD catch late in that game at State College.
LikeLike
Can we frame this and put it up on the header so when the D-bags who constantly chrip about CMR “not have a natty” start their crap we can just point. Win the SEC that is all you can control and let the chips fall where they may. We have had 3 shots at the MNC since CMR has been here (02,05,07) and luck just hasn’t worked in our favor, it may not this year but that doesn’t lessen the resume that CMR has amassed since he has been at UGA.
LikeLike
I think there’s truth in all the arguments here. They screwed themselves, but other teams who have screwed themselves have gotten a NC mulligan in the past. You’re all right.
Except I see no scenario where UGA beats SC and is not #2 in the land…and it will be difficult for them to keep us out of the NC conversation if we have a win against #1 Bama and #2 (at the time) Florida. Nobody else will have wins like that on their resumes.
LikeLike
I don’t tune into NBC each Saturday, but from what I have seen of the Domers, it’s unlikely their defense can stymie USC.
And unless they have an uncharacteristic offensive ‘splosion, they won’t be able to keep up.
LikeLike
Beat Bama to win the SEC championship in a year when the Crimson Tide is perceived by the media as one of the bigger juggernauts in NCAA history (that’s the feel I get anyway), and UGA punches its ticket. If the Dawgs win it, then the O-line grew up and Murray and the D have fully played to their potential on one of the biggest stages. Can UGA do that? It would probably qualify as one of the biggest upsets in the SEC championship game if they do. I’m not worried about the media screwing us, I’m just rooting for UGA to play the most disciplined and passionate game of the Richt era.
I think back to ’04 and ’05. In ’04 our guys got blasted by LSU and in ’05 I sort of expected more of the same. I think the team played much more confidently in ’05 because they had been to the Dome the year before. This year’s Bama is much better than ’05 LSU, but I’m hoping we are more used to being there this year and that we can harness that confidence again. It’s a month away, and I’m already equal parts nervous and pumped. Guys, please just stay healthy these next 3 games!
LikeLike
’05 LSU had also just played 11 weeks in a row due to Hurricane Katrina, don’t discount the effect of no break on that game. That being said DJ and Sean Bailey played their best games as Dawgs that night and the curse of Willie Two Thumbs hadn’t reared it’s ugly head yet.
LikeLike
All Georgia can do is win and see what happens.
There may be a (tarnished, maybe) silver lining if Alabama prevails…
Maybe ND will get matched up against the Tide.
If ND is forced to play either Georgia or Alabama, in the MNC game, were all going to be screameing “ND EXPOSED” by the third quarter.
It took a missed Pitt field goal in triple OT for these phoneys to win.
LikeLike
UGA will be the only team to beat both #1 and #2 BCS teams. Mandel or anyone can point out our wins against teams with losing records, but will they give credit for victories? ND gets wins over a 4-4 pitt team and the service academies. No offense but would those teams have winning records in the SEC? We’ll have just as many wins due to the fact that ND has no conf. championship game. Yes, we lost to SC but 5 of the top 8 BCS rankings belong to SEC teams including SC. You win the SEC I think you have a beef or legit argument that you deserve a slot over ND. Of course, you have to beat a heck of a team in Bama first. 😉
LikeLike
Comments above about how silly the MNC works for some and denies others with comparable records/circumstances are right on target. It is why there is too much emphasis placed on some arbitrary title with all the shenanigans that have been played in the BCS process. (It was even worse with AP and UPI titles when top teams hid behind weak conference schedules and bowl alliances.) Win the SEC, that is a title earned on the field that cannot be denied by anyone with a working brain.
ND is a decent, not great, team that is overrated simply because they are ND. They have beaten one team I thought they would lose to (OU), and virtually (maybe) lost to both Stanford and Pitt, two teams a legit Top 5 team would have blown out. I can see one stumble because everyone has that on a given Saturday, but they have had two. I think USC beats them because ND has no offense, Junior has already had his “projected” MNC season blown up three different times, with more to come, but I think they beat ND and save all of us from having to see the Domers get an easy pass.
LikeLike