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Warde Manuel conducted his weekly teleconference with college football media on Tuesday night after the latest CFP rankings release.
Manuel, who is in his first season as the CFP selection committee chair, spoke through several of the committee’s decisions on Tuesday evening. Perhaps the most controversial choice the committee made was to move Georgia down 9 spots to No. 12 following its loss to Ole Miss on Saturday.
Manuel said the decision to bump the Bulldogs to No. 9 was due to both the loss and a lack of consistency on offense all season.
“I think it’s a combination of both,” Manuel said. “Their offense hasn’t been consistent. The committee discussed that. They’ve struggled with some turnovers. Defense has been solid, although in the loss to Ole Miss, we felt that that plays a factor into with the offense struggling, their defense was on the field quite a bit.
“But they have just lacked some consistency on the offensive side. So when you look at where they’re ranked and how they dropped, in terms of the teams that are in front of them, both Alabama and Ole Miss beat them in the head-to-head, and so obviously as we went through the rankings and looked at everyone, they obviously fell to 12, but it’s based on who won in front of them and then head to head and everything that we look at in terms of the body of work.”
It’s hard to argue with Manuel’s evaluation of Georgia’s offense. UGA is averaging just 6.14 yards per play so far this season, which ranks 9th in the SEC. For context, he Bulldogs ranked 2nd in the SEC at the end of the 2023 campaign.
Georgia ended up landing at No. 12 in this week’s rankings, but missed out on the 12-team Playoff by 1 spot because 13th-ranked Boise State is projected to receive an automatic bid. UGA’s exclusion from the playoff bracket this week drummed up plenty of reaction on social media.
Georgia’s status will likely take care of itself this weekend, however. The Bulldogs are in position to climb back up these rankings if they can beat Tennessee at home on Saturday. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. ET.
Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
