AUBURN, Ala. — Georgia football clinched its third consecutive SEC East Division Championship with its 21-14 win at Auburn on Saturday afternoon.
The No. 4-ranked Bulldogs (9-1, 6-1 SEC) are still in the race for a College Football Playoff spot. The next set of rankings come out on Tuesday night.
Georgia will likely play No. 1-ranked LSU (9-0, 5-0) in the SEC Championship Game at 3:30 p.m. on Dec. 7 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The Bayou Bengals play at Ole Miss on Saturday night before closing the season with home games against Arkansas and Texas A&M.
LSU can clinch the West Division with two more wins.
The SEC East crown puts coach Kirby Smart in rarified air. Smart joins Florida coach Steve Spurrier as the only coaches to win three straight East Division crowns. Spurrier accomplished the feat from 1994-1996.
Spurrier, it’s worth noting, did not win his national championship until his 10th year as a head coach — and his seventh season at Florida — at the age of 51.
Smart is 20-4 against SEC East Division teams in his four years leading the Bulldogs, including wins in 18 of his past 19 dating back to the end of the 2016 season.
Georgia is working to get back to the College Football Playoff but will likely need to win all of its remaining games this season.
The Bulldogs close with games against Texas A&M at 3:30 p.m. next Saturday at Sanford Stadium and at Georgia Tech on Nov. 30.
Smart, 43, has already taken Georgia to the CFP Championship Game in 2017 and was on the verge of another CFP appearance last season before the Bulldogs were left out in controversial fashion.
Georgia beat Auburn in the 2017 SEC Championship Game by a 28-7 count, gaining a measure of revenge after the Tigers had beaten them 40-17 in the regular season.
Alabama topped the Bulldogs in last year’s SEC Championship Game 35-28, rallying from a 14-point deficit with 21-unanswered points in the second half.
