Georgia and Alabama have punched their tickets to Atlanta.
Georgia (10-0, 7-0) clinched the SEC East and a spot in the SEC Championship game before it even took the field to play Ole Miss on Saturday night. The Bulldogs clinched the division by virtue of Missouri’s 36-7 victory over Tennessee on Saturday. It didn’t matter. Georgia took care of its own business with a dominant 52-17 victory over Ole Miss.
Georgia has won 27 consecutive games and will make its third consecutive appearance in the SEC Championship. The Bulldogs, ranked No. 2 in the CFP rankings, defeated LSU, 50-30, in the title game last year. Georgia is 4-6 in SEC title games.
When asked what it means to win the SEC East title, head coach Kirby Smart said in a post-game television interview “it means we have to play Tennessee next week.”
Alabama (9-1, 7-0) won the SEC West with a 49-21 victory over Kentucky early Saturday afternoon. It was the eighth consecutive win for Alabama, No. 8 in the College Football Playoff rankings, after an early-season loss to Texas.
It is the 10th SEC West title for Alabama in the past 16 seasons and 15th overall, the most of any school. It returns to the SEC Championship game for the first time since 2021, when the Crimson Tide defeated Georgia 41-24. Georgia went on to win the first of back-to-back national championships. Alabama is 10-4 in SEC title games.
“It’s great we won the West and have the opportunity to play for an SEC championship,” Alabama coach Nick Saban told reporters. “I think there were few people after the Texas game and the South Florida game ... there were a lot of naysayers out there that didn’t believe in these guys. But I always believed in this team that they would develop into something special.”
The SEC Championship game will be played Dec. 2 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Game time is 4 p.m.
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