Ohio State’s first loss of the season cracked open the door at the top of the AP Poll, and now the conversation turns to two teams with strong claims on the No. 1 spot: Texas and Georgia.
Texas built the most obvious argument on Saturday by going into the game ranked No. 4 and beating No. 1 Ohio State 24-23 on the road.
The Longhorns were down 17 at halftime and had fallen behind 23-3 before ripping off 21 unanswered points to finish the comeback. That kind of win makes the case for a leap to No. 1 pretty straightforward.
Georgia, though, isn’t going away quietly. The Bulldogs entered the week at No. 2, which already told the pollsters believed they were ahead of Texas, and they backed that up with a 70-20 win over Western Kentucky. That followed a week one victory by 60 points, so Georgia did nothing to invite a jump by another team.
If Texas has the best win, Georgia has the stronger body of work through two weeks. That’s the tension here.
Texas beat the top team in the country. Georgia crushed its opponent by 50.
Either choice would make sense.
There’s also a bigger picture hanging over the debate. Georgia and Texas don’t meet in the regular season, but they could cross paths in the SEC Championship game in December. They were viewed entering the year as the two most likely teams to win the conference, and nothing in the first two weeks has changed that.
That title game possibility gives this No. 1 discussion a little extra edge, even if both teams still have plenty to handle before then. A few of the other top teams in the league have already shown cracks.
Oklahoma lost to a Michigan team that controversially beat Western Michigan in week one. LSU didn’t put away Louisiana Tech until late.
Alabama also looked shaky in a 45-17 win over Kentucky.
So for now, Georgia and Texas can both make a clean case to sit at the top. Texas owns the marquee win.
Georgia owns the dominant resume. And if the season plays out the way it looks like it might, they may get a chance to settle the argument on the field in December.
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Georgia's Athens Spotlight Is Suddenly In Doubt For A Game Fans Circled
Since 2016, Athens has become a regular stop for ESPNs College GameDay, with the show visiting six times for Georgia home games and often turning a Bulldogs Saturday into a campus-wide event. The 2026 schedule had already put one game in particular on the radar: Georgias home matchup with Oklahoma, a meeting that looked like an early candidate for the kind of national spotlight Athens has come to expect.
Oklahomas loss to Michigan has made that GameDay trip less certain, at least for now, because the game may not carry quite the same pull on the national stage. Even so, Georgia is still positioned to stay in the conversation elsewhere on the schedule, with road games at Alabama and Ole Miss later in the season offering other chances for the Bulldogs to land in the shows sights. [Read more 🡒]
Georgia Drawn Into Arkansas Scheduling Debate Before SEC Clash
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Kirby Smart has acknowledged the realities that come with travel and scheduling in this league, while commissioner Greg Sankey said Arkansas concerns were passed along even though the kickoff time did not change. For Georgia, it adds one more layer to a game already carrying plenty of weight, with the Bulldogs trying to handle the spotlight while the conversation around the SEC weekend keeps circling back to how the league sets these early starts. [Read more 🡒]
Kirby Smart Faces A Dangerous Georgia Problem Before SEC Road Opener
Georgia heads into its first SEC road test of the season at Arkansas with a familiar challenge for Kirby Smart: making sure the Bulldogs are locked in on the opponent in front of them, not the more glamorous game waiting down the line. After opening 2-0, the timing of this trip makes discipline and focus even more important, especially with Oklahoma looming on the schedule and plenty of outside attention ready to drift that direction.
Smart has repeatedly stressed the need to avoid complacency in SEC road games, where a team can get exposed quickly if it loses its edge. For Georgia, this one is as much about handling the moment as it is about the matchup itself, and the Bulldogs will need to show the same urgency they have preached if they want to leave Arkansas with the kind of performance that keeps the bigger picture intact. [Read more 🡒]