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The Florida Gators have their next "biggest game of the season" on deck when they take on the No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs in Atlanta on Saturday.
While no one on the team, especially the coaches, will admit to looking beyond the Bulldogs and what that could mean for the Gators' College Football Playoff chances, that doesn't mean there won't be endless speculation about the possibilities.
A loss makes it pretty clear cut, the Gators would certainly be eliminated from contention. But a win?
What could a win do?
ESPN currently has the 5-2 Gators on the bubble, joined by... the Georgia Bulldogs. Georgia lost to Auburn last week, and another loss would put a black mark on their resume. Especially a head-to-head loss to another two-loss team in their conference.
While the Gators have losses to two unranked teams, a win against the Bulldogs would give them arguably the three-best wins in college football.
"If the Gators beat Georgia on Saturday, they will have one of the best résumés, with wins against Ole Miss, Texas and Georgia. That would likely be enough for the selection committee to catapult the Gators into their first CFP ranking and honor the head-to-head victories against that trio," Heather Dinich wrote on ESPN.
The Gators' roller coaster of a season got the momentum going in the right direction against Texas. They'll need to keep it going to have a shot at the playoffs.
"The Gators' win at Texas, though, was impactful, but was it enough for the committee to honor the head-to-head wins in spite of two lopsided defeats to average teams? A victory against Georgia would answer that," Dinich wrote.
Was the upset at Texas a team that should be among the nation's best, or was it a fluke? The beauty of a nine-game SEC schedule is that every team has the ability to shake off a bad loss and prove itself over the course of the season.
"I respect every level of football," head coach Jon Sumrall said this week. "I've come up through different leagues. This league is different. It's like NFL lite. So, anybody can be anybody. The old term, the movie Any Given Sunday. Well, any given Saturday in the SEC, you have
to be ready.
'This league, it's brutal. I'm not making excuses, but we have a Power Four game; we play Florida State every year, and then nine (game conference schedule). Man, the schedules for everybody is like that. So it's a different beast."
Obviously, with a different beast of a schedule, the work won't be done if the Gators do upset Georgia, but the Gators know they hold their own destiny in their hands as November approaches.
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