Breaking News: SEC Championship Removed Next Year | Why it Matters for Georgia Football This Year

Major news broke in college football on Monday as the College Football Playoff is officially expanding to a 24-team field. The news has a second part to it: This will be the last season where conference championship games take place.

For the Georgia Bulldogs in the future, it means they will make the playoffs pretty much every season if there is no drop off while Kirby Smart is in charge. For this year, it means that Georgia has the opportunity to play in and win the last ever Southeastern Conference (SEC) Championship Game.

First, let’s look at the 24-team playoff.

Seeds 1-8 will have a bye. Seeds 9-16 will host first round games on campuses. The winners will advance to the second round where the top 8 seeds will host games. The quarterfinal and semifinal rounds will remain the same as they have been with the 12-team model - the New Year’s six bowl sites will take place then.

Now, this year. Georgia is almost certainly going to be ranked No. 1 when the next College Football Playoff rankings are revealed on Tuesday night. It will remain No. 1 if it wins out against Missouri, South Carolina and Georgia Tech. The Dawgs will be in the SEC title game on Dec. 5 if it beats Mizzou and South Carolina, and it might make it anyway if it loses one of those games.

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Georgia will likely play in the final SEC Championship game. If it wins, it will probably be the top-ranked team in the College Football Play. That would mean it would have influence on which bowl game it gets to play in in the quarterfinal in addition to a first-round bye. Georgia’s choice would be the Peach Bowl in Atlanta.

That would be major for the Dawgs as they would get to stay in their home state and dominate the crowd in Mercedes-Benz Stadium again.

Smart was asked about the expansion and the conference championship games on Monday. His answer might surprise you.

“I do not have a real comment. I think we all kind of knew, right? It is not really news that is breaking. It is more, ‘When will they decide to go to 24.’ It sounded like the SEC Championship would go away. I honestly don't concern myself with that at all, so I don't have a lot of commentary about it. I think it's a great, historic game. It's great for the players, the programs, the fans. The location has been awesome for us. The venue is incredible. All of those things are awesome, but times are changing. As they change, you have to adapt to it,” Smart said.

He has repeatedly said how much he cares about the SEC Championship game over the years. If Georgia gets in, it will put all of its effort into taking home that trophy. This year, there are important playoff implications with it. A quarterfinal game in Atlanta is plenty of incentive to win out and to win the conference title.

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