As the 12th edition of the College Football Playoff kicks off this weekend, Georgia finds itself right where it’s grown comfortable: in the thick of the national title hunt. The Bulldogs are making their fifth CFP appearance, this time as the No. 3 seed in the newly expanded 12-team format - a position that earns them a first-round bye. Only Alabama (nine), Clemson (seven), and Ohio State (seven) have more trips to the dance, and only the Crimson Tide has more national titles in the CFP era.
Digging into the history of the CFP, ESPN’s Bill Connelly recently ranked all 64 teams to participate in the playoff so far, using his SP+ ratings to help sort through the contenders and pretenders. Georgia, unsurprisingly, is well-represented throughout the list - though not every Dawgs squad is remembered equally.
Let’s start with the most recent iteration: the 2024 team, which came in at No. 34 in the rankings. That group clawed its way to an SEC Championship despite a late-season injury to quarterback Carson Beck and a roster that, while tough and disciplined, didn’t quite match the star power of the 2021 or 2022 championship teams.
The Bulldogs managed to survive several close calls and entered the playoff with a 12-1 record, but the wheels came off in the Sugar Bowl quarterfinal against Notre Dame. With Gunner Stockton making his first career start under center, Georgia surrendered 17 points in just 56 seconds - a brutal stretch that proved too much to overcome in a 23-10 loss.
Interestingly, this year’s Georgia team - again SEC champs with a 12-1 record - currently ranks just one spot higher at No. 33.
But while the résumé looks similar on paper, the trajectory of this team has felt different. Early in the season, the Dawgs leaned heavily on second-half adjustments and sheer grit to stay unbeaten.
But by November, the defense - young and unproven at the start - had matured into a playoff-caliber unit. Georgia avenged its lone loss to Alabama in emphatic fashion with a blowout win in the SEC Championship Game, reasserting itself as a team nobody wants to face.
The question now: can this version of the Dawgs generate enough explosive plays to make a deep run? That’s still up in the air, but one thing’s for sure - Georgia doesn’t go down easy.
Looking back, the 2017 team earned the No. 19 spot in Connelly’s rankings, and with good reason. That squad, in just Kirby Smart’s second year at the helm, came within a whisper of ending a 37-year national title drought.
They knocked off Notre Dame in South Bend early in the season, steamrolled the SEC East, and avenged a regular-season loss to Auburn with a dominant win in the conference title game. The Rose Bowl semifinal against Oklahoma - a double-overtime thriller - is still considered one of the greatest games in CFP history.
And in the national championship, Georgia had Alabama on the ropes… until a freshman named Tua Tagovailoa stepped onto the field and flipped the script.
Fast forward to 2021, and Georgia’s long-awaited breakthrough finally arrived. That team landed at No. 6 in the all-time CFP rankings, just behind 2018 Clemson and 2023 Michigan.
For the first three months of the season, the Dawgs were the most complete team in the country. The defense was historically dominant, and the offense was ruthlessly efficient.
Only Alabama managed to score more than 17 points on them all year - and even after a loss to the Tide in the SEC title game, Georgia bounced back in the playoff. A game-sealing pick-six by Kelee Ringo in the national championship sealed the deal and delivered the program’s first title in 41 years.
Then came the 2022 team, which Connelly ranked as the third-best CFP squad of all time - trailing only 2019 LSU and 2020 Alabama. This Georgia team didn’t just win - it dominated.
The Bulldogs scored 37 or more points in 11 games and held opponents to 14 or fewer in nine. They were rarely in danger, with only two games coming down to the wire.
The closest call came in the semifinal, when Ohio State missed a last-second field goal that would’ve knocked Georgia out. But even without quite the same top-end talent as the 2021 group, the 2022 Dawgs were arguably even more consistent and complete.
So, where does that leave the current team? Still with plenty to prove - and plenty of pedigree behind them.
Georgia might not be the flashiest squad in this year’s playoff, but history tells us they’re built for the fight. And when the Dawgs start barking in December, it usually means someone’s title dreams are about to get trampled.