Georgia vs. Texas
Saturday, Dec. 7
4:10 p.m. Eastern, 2:10 p.m. Pacific
ABC
The SEC Championship Game returns to ABC Sports after more than 20 years on CBS. ABC televised the first SEC Championship Game in 1992, when Alabama beat Florida in overtime in Birmingham. ABC continued to carry the game through the year 2000 before CBS took over for the next 23 years. Now ABC gets the game back, and it’s a matchup between two teams which will be in the College Football Playoff. The stakes are obvious: not just a conference championship, but a first-round bye in the playoff, which means that team would need to win three playoff games, not four, to win the national championship.
This game is a rematch of a regular-season meeting in Austin. Georgia controlled the game from start to finish, flummoxing the Texas offense. Quarterback play in the SEC this season has been down, a big reason so many SEC teams have lost multiple games. Texas has only one loss, which is partly a credit to the Longhorns’ strong and consistent defense, but UT having only one loss in the SEC is also a product of a schedule in which the Horns did not have to play Ole Miss, Tennessee, LSU, and South Carolina. When Texas played Georgia head to head, the Longhorns got punched in the mouth. Now Texas tries to beat the Dawgs in a rematch played in Atlanta, where Georgia should have most of the fans in the building. It will be fascinating to see how all the circumstances surrounding the matchup affect what we will see on the field.
Georgia Bulldogs-Texas Longhorns Odds
Spread: Georgia +2.5 (-105), Texas -2.5 (-115)
Total: 49.5 (Over -110, Under -110)
Underdog moneyline: Georgia +116
Hear why Gary loves the Bulldogs in this battle for the SEC championship on the newest “3 Dog Thursday Podcast” by clicking play below,
Revenge for the Horns
The best betting play in this game looks like a total, not a side. You could say that Texas will win this rematch after losing game one, and that’s not a terrible play to make. Texas is favored by less than a field goal, meaning that a three-point Texas win cashes a Longhorn spread ticket. That’s not a bad way to look at the game. However, the total might offer a clearer path to a winning bet.
Texas just did play a 17-7 game last week versus Texas A&M. The Texas offense was handled by Georgia’s defense several weeks ago, and now UGA is playing in front of a partisan crowd. Texas’s defense has been superb all season long and goes up against a very inconsistent Georgia offense led by wobbly quarterback Carson Beck.
Unless Beck throws a pick-six, or unless the offenses create turnovers which instantly turn into touchdowns for the opposing team, this game is probably going to settle into the 20-17 or 23-20 range. The offenses do not figure to have the upper hand, especially since these teams have already met and have seen what the other side tries to do. Moreover, Texas has such a good defense that it’s hard to see Georgia busting free on offense, even if it wins the game. The more we think about this, the more we are convinced the under is the right play to make.