It seems like the inception of the College Football Playoff was just yesterday, but we have now seen nine years of the four-team format with a 12-team layout on the horizon. And the Georgia Bulldogs have become a mainstay in recent years since Kirby Smart took over. Returning to his alma mater, Smart brought Athens its first championship since the early 80s and is primed to be the first program to repeat since Nick Saban and Alabama did so a decade ago. So, where do the 2022 Georgia Bulldogs rank among all 36 CFP teams? ESPN has them as the fourth-highest team, behind 2020 Alabama, 2019 LSU, and 2018 Clemson.
4. 2022 Georgia (13-0)
CFP matchup:Â vs. Ohio State in Chick-fil-A Peach BowlThe defending national champions have played six teams that currently rank in the SP+ top 25 and have beaten them by an average score of 39-13. They’ve scored at least 37 points in nine of 13 games and have allowed 14 or fewer in eight. They battled attention span issues during underwhelming midseason wins over Kent State and Missouri, but when they’ve needed to be awesome, they’ve been way more than that. A couple of big CFP wins would potentially lift them further on this list, too.
First and foremost, 2019 LSU is arguably the greatest team of all time, let alone in the College Football Playoff era. As an LSU alumnus, I am obviously biased, but the most significant difference between 2020 Bama and the Joe Burrow-led Tigers was the fans in the stands. I don’t care about the all-SEC schedule; there were no fans, which provides an immense impact on games.
I think Georiga fans have an argument to be third if this team dominates its way through Ohio State and Michigan/TCU. And honestly, they could be even higher than the COVID-champion Crimson Tide, in my opinion. I put a ton of weight into the lack of fans across all sports. Every 2020 championship has an asterisk and shouldn’t be considered the greatest of anything, regardless of the sport.
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Photographer: David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire
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