Imagine you buy a house. It’s in a pretty decent neighborhood. But after you buy it, a bunch of really nice restaurants and shops start popping up all around it. The local school district starts posting better test scores. Suddenly, your house is worth more.
Mark Richt’s Miami didn’t just ruin Notre Dame. It also hurt the team that fired him.
Other than the Irish themselves, nobody lost more in Miami’s big win than the Georgia Bulldogs.
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But then it turns out there’s an electrical issue, and your house explodes into flames. The lot is still valuable, but you don’t have nearly the asset you thought you did.
Imagine you beat Notre Dame in South Bend in Week 2. The Irish are supposed to be pretty good, and you’re happy about it. But then the Irish win seven games in a row, including two against ranked USC and NC State. They rise to No. 3 in the playoff ranking, and you’ve got maybe the best win of any team in the country. Your asset has now tripled in value. You’re No. 1 in your area, largely because of it.
But then Miami beats the Irish by 33 freaking points, and suddenly your win looks just OK.
So now you understand Georgia’s current predicament.
The coach UGA fired two years ago just dealt the Dawgs a blow.
Mark Richt’s Miami humbled the Irish on Saturday. The Hurricanes stopped Notre Dame’s Playoff bid in its tracks and entrenched themselves as a contender. If they beat Clemson in the ACC Championship Game, the Canes will make the top four.
Miami’s win is a bad thing for Georgia, too. The Dawgs still control their own destiny, because they’ve clinched the SEC East, and whoever wins their conference will participate in the Playoff, full stop. But Notre Dame getting run off the field like that means Georgia’s best win is now a lot less impressive.
There’s been lots of talk about whether this might be the year a conference — specifically the SEC — places two teams in the Playoff. Had Georgia gone into an SEC title game unbeaten and then lost to, say, unbeaten Alabama, the right amount of chaos elsewhere could’ve landed the Dawgs in the Playoff anyway.
That now seems impossible. Notre Dame is still a quality win, and it’ll help the Dawgs in all the ways quality wins usually help Playoff contenders. But there’s nothing inherently special about it anymore. Mix in that Georgia’s no longer undefeated after getting trounced at Auburn, and UGA’s path is now as narrow as winning out.
Georgia’s doing great under Kirby Smart, but Richt should be smiling.
Also, if the committee’s stuck choosing between UGA and the U for a spot somewhere in the rankings, it’ll have to factor in performance vs. common opponents as a potential tiebreaker.
The Dawgs beat the Irish by one in South Bend. The Canes beat the Irish by 33 in Miami. Miami wins that one.
Also maybe hurt by Notre Dame’s disaster in South Beach: Alabama.
The Tide are still unbeaten, having escaped Mississippi State in Starkville. If they beat Auburn in the Iron Bowl, they’ll enter the SEC Championship with a spotless record.
The flip side of that UGA hypothetical above also would’ve worked for the Tide. If Georgia were unbeaten with a win against Playoff-bound Notre Dame, how far could the Tide reasonably have fallen for losing to the Dawgs?
It’s still conceivable that Alabama makes the field after an SEC title loss, but it’s less likely now than before. Part of that’s on Georgia for losing at Auburn, and part of it’s because of Notre Dame. Anything that weakens Georgia also threatens to weaken Bama, basically.
But above all, the Canes should be happy for themselves.
The U certainly appears to be back.
Miami has a tenacious defense that just put a hurting on Notre Dame’s all-world running game, holding it to 3 yards per carry and totally neutralizing stars Josh Adams and Brandon Wimbush. The Canes have a sweet chain they wear when they force turnovers. Their school just hosted College GameDay and had a blast doing it. They’ll join the committee’s top four on Tuesday night. They are unbeaten with two regular season games left.
This program’s future is bright. Richt’s 2018 recruiting class ranks fourth nationally and in tops in the ACC, after last year’s was 12th and second, respectively. In thrashing Notre Dame, the Canes started four seniors on offense and two on defense. Miami is positioned to run things in the Coastal division for the foreseeable future.
Big things are ahead, whether those are this winter or just over the next couple of seasons. But there’s nothing wrong with living in this moment, especially when it features the Canes right at the top of the college football world.
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