College Football 2018: 5 takeaways from Week 13

4. Georgia has a lot on the line

If there is one team that needs to pick up a win during conference championship week, it’s Georgia. The Bulldogs face the toughest opponent out of all the conference championships in arguably the most even-keeled championship match when they face Alabama next week.

Georgia is effectively playing for three things in totality –– a chance to avenge Alabama from last year’s championship game, an SEC title and perhaps most importantly, a spot in the College Football Playoff.

The SEC Championship game has been set for a few weeks now, but now that Michigan lost, there is a strong possibility that the Bulldogs will slide into the No. 4 spot.

A win would most likely put the Bulldogs into the playoff because they would be the only team this year to defeat Alabama –– which in it of itself should merit a playoff spot in addition to only having one loss.

However, that won’t last for long if Georgia falls to the Crimson Tide next week. There has yet to be a two-loss team included in the playoff field and if Georgia loses to Alabama, they will fall out of the top 4 and effectively put itself out of playoff contention.

Should Georgia beat Alabama, the question remains will that knock Alabama out of the playoff? The answer, for now, should be no.

In this scenario, even though Alabama would lose in the final week before the playoff field is revealed, the Crimson Tide have dominated all year long. In fact, they have yet to win by less than 20 points to any opponent this season.

In this case, Alabama would drop to the No. 2 or the No. 3 seed, but for all intents and purposes, their playoff fate is very much sealed.