What if UGA Hadn't Scheduled Boise

Georgia sits on the verge of another SEC East Title. Only a matchup at 12:21 Saturday versus a very down Kentucky team Between the Hedges remains in the conference regular season. Georgia faces little Georgia Tech next week in Midtown Atlanta, where Mark Richt is undefeated over a full ten years. With Oklahoma State joining the long list of the clearly overrated-while-undefeated teams with a crushing loss to Iowa State Friday night, parody (not parity) is the real punch-word for the BCS Championship this season. Boise State was upset in close football games by tough as nails TCU (twice) and a one-loss Nevada over the past two years but has not lost to a team from a BCS conference in many years. Meanwhile, they have defeated generally well-regarded BCS programs: Oregon (twice), Oklahoma, Virginia Tech and finally Georgia. For no explicable reason, the University of Georgia agreed to play a polished program in the type of game they love, with an unproven squad that would eventually be led almost exclusively by underclassmen. It was a bad move in retrospect because, check this out: Georgia would clearly be competing for a National Championship this season if that game had never been played. Here is why: the past five SEC Champions have been National Champions. The winner of the SEC Championship game – unless it is two-loss Georgia – will definitely play for it all. When we scheduled Boise, I wondered why (with an aloud expletive). We were coming off a 6-7 campaign and faced the peaking defending SEC East Champion South Carolina Gamecocks in week two in Athens. The same Carolina program that had Lattimore and had mashed Georgia, and for that matter the mighty Bama, the year prior. Richt must have hoped for one win out of those two huge games. Georgia was ineffective and unprepared for the poise of Boise. Against Carolina, UGA mostly dominated statistically but big plays cost them dearly in a 45-42 heartbreaker. He got none. The team was 0-2. With the team rebounding and in the process of winning out, that quirky Boise contest ultimately may cost UGA a shot at playing for it all. No team in the nation is undefeated besides Houston and LSU. Houston is currently not in consideration for the big game due to their weak schedule. If LSU beats Arkansas, they face Georgia. If Georgia was a one-loss SEC Champion while every other BCS team also had one loss, we would play for a crystal ball. This is reminding me more-and-more of the year LSU lost games near the end of the season to Kentucky and Arkansas and was still allowed to play for a title in their state, which they won. You remember: the year Georgia lost two early games and then Moreno hit his stride and Georgia won out and was playing the best football in the country, then was relegated to playing against Hawaii. PLAYOFFS NEEDED!

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