Joel Klatt BOLDLY Predicts Georgia Has to Win Out to Make College Football Playoffs

Fox college football analyst Joel Klatt boldly says Georgia has to stay undefeated to make the College Football Playoffs.

In a college football season, that has seen one of the craziest starts to the past few seasons in recent memory. Wild games this season have raised many questions surrounding programs, one of those programs being the Georgia Bulldogs. Analysts have been predicting what may hold for Georgia's season after numerous preseason talks about their schedule being too easy. One of these analysts is FOX's Joel Klatt, who boldly predicted in a recent episode on his podcast that Georgia has to win out to make the College Football Playoffs.

Klatt was originally discussing how the Pac-12 conference could possibly be the best conference in the country right now despite the SEC's dominance over the better part of two decades. He then moves the discussion to whether or not the CFB Committee will take a 1-loss SEC Champion or a 1-loss Pac-12 Champion. Klatt stated, "You start looking at this weekend for the SEC, and all of a sudden, with the prism of what's going on in other conferences - you start to wonder to yourself, is the SEC Champion going to have to be undefeated in order to go?"

This is a plausible question when you look at the multitude of programs that have broken into the discussion of being a contender, such as Washington, Florida State, Texas, and your normal teams like Ohio State. But would the committee truly consider this option even though there hasn't been a playoff without an SEC team involved in it? The argument could be made. As Klatt mentions, this weekend for not only the SEC but for Georgia is one of the most important ones. Their matchup with Kentucky will likely decide who represents the SEc East in the conference championship game and has many doubting the Bulldogs. 

Brock Bowers catches a ball Vass Auburn/photo - Brooks Austin

Klatt stated this about considering the game  and the importance of this weekend for the SEC- 

"Georgia is a great program right now, I don't know how great of a team they are this year. But they play Kentucky, and, I understand it, it's in Athens; it's gonna be tough for Kentucky to go in there and win, and I'm not saying they're going to - The data rings true again this week in that Georgia isn't what they've been at the line of scrimmage while Kentucky is very good at the line of scrimmage and they can run the ball. Remember, Georgia has been for the last four years a top three rushing yards per carry defense in college football; this year, they are 67th, so they are not themselves at the line of scrimmage. Let's just say, sake of argument, Kentucky wins - we are staring down the barrel of a Kentucky-Texas A&M SEC Championship game. We are staring down the barrel of a Kentucky-Missouri game later in the year that decides the SEC East. It's a wild thought to think about where this conference is right now and how big these games actually are. If you're an SEC fan, you're rooting for Georgia because the chaos that ensues if the Bulldogs lose is pretty wild." 

Klatt then moves the discussion to compare a one-loss SEC Champion Georgia team to a one-loss Pac-12 Champion team, and how "what was normally reserved for the SEC Champ was that they were going to go through a gauntlet so regardless of 'oh you lost a game but hey look at all of your top ten wins,' that's what was always in the back pocket of the SEC champ over the last few years, and right;y so," Klatt stated. "well no all of a sudden you have to shift your mindset and that's what can and probably will and should be afforded to the Pac-12 and not the SEC,"  Klatt continued. He goes on to bring up a hypothetical of if Georgia loses to Ole Miss down the road, that they "hope" Alabama can crawl back into the top-ten and be "their best win" in the SEC Championship game, "Why because you need more ammunition the resume." 

Granted, the opening five games for the Bulldogs were not the greatest opponents in the country that Georgia could have faced to open their season, but the latter half of their schedule proves otherwise. Georgia has just two home games in their final six games of the regular season, both against ranked teams Missouri and Ole Miss. The remaining games, such as a ranked Tennessee game, will be played on the road, which Georgia just proved this past weekend that they can overcome adversity.

In another episode, Klatt also had Georgia as the number three team in his version of the CFB Top 25 for multiple reasons including their rank for rushing yards per carry this season and reasoning how "Georgia is not the same team anymore." But, the same reasoning could be used to argue why Georgia hasn't seemed to hit their stride yet and why so many new teams have sprung into the conversation as national title contenders. Though there can be some leeway granted in regards to Georgia losing two major pieces offensively and three on the defense, at this point in the season those kinks should have been worked out, and Kirby Smart agrees stating in multiple post-game conferences that "we need to get better." 

Klatt brings up plenty of fair arguments to his case, but only time will tell what happens this weekend when the Wildcats and Bulldogs decide who will likely be heading to Atlanta and representing the SEC East in the SEC Championship game.