Georgia coach Dennis Felton said he "objected vehemently" to the SEC's reconfigured tournament format and that the league was basically "eliminating [the Bulldogs'] chances of winning the tournament" by making them play twice in a day against an opponent that is playing only once.

The sixth-seeded Bulldogs (15-16) shocked No. 2 seed Kentucky (18-12) with a 60-56 overtime win early Saturday afternoon. Their game was originally supposed to be played Friday night at the Georgia Dome but was moved to Saturday at Georgia Tech's Alexander Memorial Coliseum because of storm damage to the Dome.

SEC officials and administrators from the five schools still competing met into the wee hours Saturday morning to decide how to proceed with the tournament.

Felton did not like their solution, which was for the winner of the Georgia-Kentucky game to play again late Saturday against a Mississippi State team (22-9) that advanced to the semifinals Friday night.

"I very, very respectfully take great exception to the decision to make a team play two games in a [day] when the games are so important," Felton said in a press conference after the win over Kentucky. "I think everybody understands that this tournament is our only chance to make it to the national tournament. And I can't help but feel that when that decision was made they made it knowing well they were basically eliminating our chances of winning the tournament."

Felton said he suggested to athletics director Damon Evan, who represented the Bulldogs at the all-night meeting, that they should play the one quarterfinal on Saturday and play three games on Sunday, the two semifinals and the championship game.

"Now it's fair because both teams [in the championship game] will have played two games in a row," Felton said. "If the teams involved in [the title] game didn't feel like they wanted to or needed to play it, like I heard there was some sentiment, then they could choose not to play a championship game and have co-champions."

Evans said he did carry that suggestion to the ad hoc committee but that it was declined.

"I'm always going to fight for Georgia from every standpoint and I did but this was not a one-vote decision," Evans said by telephone later. "It was a group decision and there were a lot of different considerations. At the end of the night it was determined this was the best format. No doubt it puts us at a disadvantage playing two in a day but that couldn't be avoided."

Mark Womack, the SEC's executive associative commissioner who chaired the committee in the absence of commissioner Mike Slive, said they considered Felton's proposal but rejected it because playing three games on Sunday still left one team at a competitive disadvantage.

"You have to be finished in time for the [NCAA] Selection time, so under that scenario, one team would get to play on two hours rest while the other team would have to play on 20 minutes rest," Womack said. "And you could potentially have two or three overtimes in some of those games.

"Nobody's happy with what we're doing; it's not a perfect solution. It's a difficult problem and it came at a time when we had a short period to make a lot of difficult decisions. We did it as a group and we had the involvement of everybody. At the end of the day it was a consensus that this was the best option."

For the group maybe, but not necessarily for Felton. He is, after all, fighting for his job.

"I wasn't involved in the dialogue, though I let my opinion and feelings known to our administration," he said. "I don't know where it went from there. But here we are, having to play the most important game of our season — the most important game of some guys' careers so far — against a Mississippi State team that hasn't had to play a game."

Felton said the Bulldogs will do everything they can to try to rejuvenate his players and have them ready for the MSU. That included replacing fluids, getting the players to sleep and preparing special meals.

"But you saw the game," he said of the dramatic win over Kentucky. "We gave it everything we had."