Georgia’s grip on the SEC favorite tag tightened fast this week, and the shift happened almost as quickly as the preseason conversation flipped from Texas to Athens.
For much of the offseason, the Longhorns had been the team sitting at the top of the conference odds. That changed when the media voted Georgia as the SEC favorite on Friday, with Texas coming in second. Then FanDuel Sportsbook moved Georgia all the way to the top of the board, making the Bulldogs the new betting favorite.
Right now, Georgia sits at +290, with Texas close behind at +330.
Odds adjust periodically and are subject to change.
The move gives Georgia the kind of preseason respect it has earned on the field. The Bulldogs have won the SEC the last two years, and they also returned the fifth-most production in the country from last season’s team. Kirby Smart is still running the show in Athens, and that alone keeps Georgia in the thick of the league race every year.
This isn’t new territory for Georgia, either. The Bulldogs are about to enter the expanded conference as the preseason favorite, but they’re used to carrying that kind of spotlight. That pressure has been part of the package for a while now.
Texas, meanwhile, had been the betting favorite going back to last season’s end. Vegas also leaned hard toward the Longhorns heading into the 2024 and 2025 seasons, only for Georgia to finish on top both times. This week, though, the oddsmakers finally swung back toward the Bulldogs after the media vote.
That’s why Georgia’s rise feels like a correction as much as a surprise. Vegas was slow to give the Bulldogs the respect they had already earned, and the media’s vote seems to have pushed the market in that direction.
And now the expectations are obvious. Georgia has the preseason favorite label, and that means the standard is higher than ever. Fans have spent plenty of time poking fun at Texas for not matching the hype over the past two years, so falling short after reclaiming the top spot would be a tough look.
If Georgia does win the conference again, it would become just the third school to win three straight SEC titles since the championship game began in 1992. But whether the odds say it or not, Georgia is still Georgia - and that makes it a threat every time the season starts.
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Now Muschamp is moving into a spot that matters well beyond Austin, because Texas and Georgia are expected to keep crossing paths in the SEC race. Steve Sarkisian has already made clear how much he values Muschamps approach and the way he connects with players, which only adds to the intrigue for a league where the margin between contenders can be thin and familiar faces tend to matter more than anyone wants to admit. [Read more 🡒]
Kirby Smart Sounds Fed Up With Georgias Never-Ending NIL Debate
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Georgias approach has been to avoid overpaying recruits and transfers, then reward players once they have proven themselves and become worth keeping around. Since NIL became legal in 2021, the Bulldogs have paired that philosophy with two national championships and three SEC titles, a record that has not quieted the debate so much as made it harder to dismiss. Even with questions lingering about spending and a 2027 class that sits outside the top 10, Georgia remains one of the sports standard-bearers, which is why the NIL conversation around Smart never really goes away. [Read more 🡒]