Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart expressed his beef to reporters regarding the criterion of the College Football Playoff Committee. “They need to really decide what they want,” regarding strength of schedule and quality of opponents. Well, when the latest rankings dropped Tuesday night, the Dawgs were ranked 10th. Meanwhile, the team they beat on October 19th (in Austin), the Texas Longhorns, are ranked 3rd. Criticism was directed toward Rich Clark, the executive director of the College Football Playoff. Also, Warde Manuel, the College Football Playoff Selection Committee chair faced the heat.Georgia beat a top ten team in the Tennessee Volunteers last Saturday night and only moved up two spots. Meanwhile, the Miami Hurricanes lost to a good Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets squad ten days ago. Miami did not drop out of the top twelve. Consequently, Manuel said Texas is ‘still a very strong team.’ Despite surviving a tough battle against their old Southwest Conference rival, the Arkansas Razorbacks, Texas is in the top four. “Well, obviously Georgia has a very good win at Texas,” Manuel admitted. “But as the committee analyzed the body of work of Texas versus where Georgia is at the present time with two losses, even to top-25 teams, we came out that Texas was still a very strong team deserving of a 3 seed. They have a top-5 defense. Quinn Ewers is leading one of the top passing offenses in the country.”What does this mean?If the Playoff began tomorrow, Georgia would be on the road facing the Penn State Nittany Lions in Happy Valley. A cold weather climate which is unusual, but possible in this format. “We just looked at them and thought — and came out, I should say, with them at 3,” Manuel said of Texas. “It’s nothing against Georgia. Georgia is a great team, but they did struggle against Ole Miss at Ole Miss but had a great win this past week against Tennessee. We will continue to monitor both teams and see how it goes in the next few weeks.”The top four teams in the College Football Playoff will receive a first round bye. Teams ranked 5-8 will host their first round games on campus. Finally, teams ranked 9-12 will travel to play their first round games. The SEC Championship Game can now decide who makes the PlayoffQuarterback Jalen Milroe scans the field during the second half of the 2023 SEC Championship game between the Georgia Buulldogs and the Alabama Crimson Tide on Saturday, December 2, 2023 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo: Itoro N. Umontuen/The Atlanta Voice)Currently, the SEC has four teams that are 8-2: Alabama, Georgia, Ole Miss, and Tennessee. Georgia has played five games against the top seven teams of the committee’s teams and has won three, which is one more than Alabama, Ole Miss and Texas combined. However, it seems as though the Committee has a greater value on the number of losses a team has rather than the quality of its schedule. As a result, Georgia has completed their gauntlet of a conference schedule at 6-2. Alabama has two conference games remaining (at Oklahoma and home against Auburn). Ole Miss also has two conference games remaining (at Florida and home against Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl). Lastly, Tennessee has a road game against Vanderbilt in Nashville. It stands to reason, if Texas does not lose their remaining games against Kentucky and Texas A&M, the Longhorns will play in Atlanta. However, if Alabama, Georgia, Ole Miss, Texas and Tennessee have any designs on making the College Football Playoff in 2024, losing the SEC Championship game will not help anyone’s cause. That is not lost on Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin.“I’ve talked to other coaches, so I’ll just kind of give you the feeling from some other coaches. They don’t want to be in it,” Kiffin said on Monday regarding the SEC Championship game. “You know, the reward to get a bye versus the risk of getting knocked out completely, that’s pretty big, that’s a really big risk.”Consequently, Kirby Smart stayed away from that talk.“Why would I put energy or time into trying to figure out what the best pathway is, including the SEC Championship, when I’m worried about UMass?” Smart said. “I just don’t think it’s a quality conversation.”The post Who has beef with the College Football Playoff rankings this week? appeared first on The Atlanta Voice.