Why UGA-Texas won't be the biggest game of college football Week 8

The entire College Football world is gearing up for a heavyweight battle between the No. 5-ranked Georgia Bulldogs and the No. 1-ranked Texas Longhorns this coming weekend.

The game, which will be featured on ESPN College GameDay, is set to have a huge ratings pop for ABC. Set in primetime between two of the biggest brands in the country, there are plenty of reasons to be excited about this one, and there are plenty of questions that we'll see answered:

Is Texas truly the clear-cut favorite to win the SEC this year? How would Georgia respond to already having two conference losses and being on the outside-looking-in in terms of getting to Atlanta? How will the CFB Playoff Committee view this game in just a few weeks when its first ranking is released? Of course, we shouldn't forget the sheer intrigue surrounding two elite units — Texas's offense and Georgia's defense — squaring off against one another.

While we'll certainly be watching this one, there is actually a case to be made that it won't be the biggest game of the week. As a matter of fact, I think there's a much greater chance that we're all talking about another game on Sunday and Monday of next week, and this one takes place about 1,037 miles to the northeast: Alabama at Tennessee.

No one is going to look at Alabama and Tennessee and mistake them for being teams without flaws. Truth be told, if the Crimson Tide weren't at home and if Georgia hadn't had such an atrocious first half, Alabama would already have two losses. But, that's the beauty of College Football.

Alabama has had a rough couple of weeks. The Crimson Tide were upset by Vanderbilt and then they came back home and nearly loss to South Carolina. Tennessee has almost had a mirror-image couple of weeks. The Vols were upset by Arkansas in a game where they could only muster 14 points. They came back home to face a bad Florida team and the rivalry game went to overtime befor Tennessee finally eeked out a 23-17 win.

Heading into this weekend, both teams sit at 5-1 overall and 2-1 in the SEC. While they both narrowly avoided disaster last week, that's not going to be the case this week for one team.

Looking ahead to the back half of this season, the loser of this game puts themselves behind the eight ball. They'll already have two losses in the SEC, which means getting to Atlanta will be rather difficult. In addition, they still will have a few losable matchups remaining. Tennessee still has to play Kentucky and travel to Georgia and Vanderbilt. Alabama still has Missouri, as well as road games against LSU and Oklahoma.

Is that to say that this one is an elimination game in the CFB Playoff? No, not necessarily. A 10-2 SEC team is still almost a lock to get into the 12-team playoff, but a 9-3 team might not be as lucky. As a matter of fact, as things are setting up around the rest of the country, it woudn't be surprising at all to see the SEC only end up with, say, four teams in the CFB Playoff than the preseason expectation that the conference would have five or even six.

I'm not saying that's a guarantee by any stretch of the imagination. I'm just saying that the conference is beginning to cannibalize itself and that absolutely will lead to some eliminations along the way. This game feels like it has the potential to be just that.

Of course, that doesn't even take into account what this game will mean for the winner. This is a rivalry game and there will be a lot of emotion involved — certainly more "bad blood" than we'll see in UGA-Texas just simply because of familiarity and history — and the winner is going to have all their miscues from the last two weeks forgiven. They'll continue to move up into the AP Poll and will be set up nicely looking ahead to the rest of the month.

If that weren't enough, the winner of this game will like their place in the SEC standings. Let's assume for a second that Georgia loses to Texas. That would give the Bulldogs two losses in the SEC, including one to Alabama. If the Crimson Tide beat Tennessee, they would have a firm lead over Georgia and they'd be sitting pretty at second in the SEC with a 3-1 record. The same could be said about Tennessee assuming the Vols win.

Crazy things have happened in Alabama-Tennessee in the past and this weekend is setting up for another potentially wild finish. Of course, the eyes of the nation will be on Georgia and Texas Saturday night, but don't sleep on Bama-Tennessee. It could end up becoming the Game of the Week.

The Crimson Tide and Vols will kickoff at 3:30 p.m. on ABC.

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