The final turn of the screw to determine the College Football Playoff field lies ahead with league championship games across the country set for Friday and Saturday.
The top-five ranked conference championship game winners will receive automatic bids into the 12-team CFP field, which begins play on Dec. 19 and Dec. 20 with first-round games pitting teams seeded No. 5 through No. 12 meeting on campus sites.
The top four seeds will receive first-round byes and begin play in the CFP quarterfinals at the Cotton Bowl (Dec. 31), Orange Bowl (Jan. 1) Rose Bowl (Jan. 1) and Sugar Bowl (Jan. 1) against first-round winners.
Georgia (11-1) could earn one of those first-round byes, as the Bulldogs opened as a 1.5-point favorite to beat Alabama (10-2) at 4 p.m. on Saturday in the SEC championship game in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta per DraftKings.com.
The SEC title game is a rematch of the teams’ Sept. 27 meeting in Athens, when the Crimson Tide snapped the Bulldogs’ 33-game home win streak with a 24-21 victory.
Coach Kirby Smart has led No. 4-ranked Georgia to SEC title game appearances in eight of the past nine years, including five in a row, matching the league record set by Steve Spurrier at Florida from 1992-1996.
It’s the fifth time the Bulldogs and Tide have met in the SEC championship game since its inception in 1992, and the third time in the past five years, with Alabama winning all of the previous meetings: 32-28 (2012), 35-28 (2018), 41-24 (2021) and 27-24 (2023).
UGA could be making a trip to play in the Sugar Bowl CFP quarterfinal with a win over the Tide, as the New Orleans bowl site gets the higher-ranked champ from the SEC or Big 12.
The Big Ten championship game at 8 p.m. on Saturday between No. 1-ranked Ohio State (12-0) and No. 2-ranked Indiana (12-0) figures to get the most hype this week.
It’s the first conference championship game matchup between the top-two ranked teams since 2009, when Florida played Alabama in the SEC championship game.
The Buckeyes have won 30-straight games against the Hoosiers, who are playing in the Big Ten championship game for the first time in history.
Ohio State opened as a 5.5-point favorite to beat Indiana.
Texas Tech (11-1) will play in the Big 12 championship game at noon on Saturday, making its first conference title game appearance in program history.
The No. 5-ranked Red Raiders will face an 11-1 BYU team that’s making its first conference title game appearance since 1998, when the No. 11-ranked Cougars were members of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC).
Texas Tech beat BYU earlier this season, 29-7 in Lubbock, Texas, and is an 11.5-point favorite to win when the teams meet in Arlington, Texas, on Saturday.
Virginia (10-2) will play Duke (7-5) in the ACC championship game at 8 p.m. on Saturday after the Blue Devils won a tiebreaker among five league teams that finished with 6-2 conference marks. The No. 18-ranked Cavaliers finished with the league’s best conference mark at 7-1.
Virginia beat Duke 34-17 on Nov. 15 in Durham, N.C., and is a 2.5-point favorite to beat the Blue Devils again when the teams play in Charlotte, N.C., at 8 p.m. on Saturday.
The winner of the American Conference championship game at 8 p.m. on Friday between North Texas (11-1) and No. 24 Tulane (10-2) figures to be among the five highest-ranked conference champions and receive an automatic berth.
The teams did not meet this season, and, despite being the CFP’s higher-ranked team last week, the Green Wave is a 3-point underdog against the Denton, Texas school known as the “Mean Green.”
James Madison (11-1) will face Troy (8-4) in the Sun Belt league title game at 7 p.m. on Friday in another conference championship game that could have College Football Playoff implications.
The Dukes are a 20.5-point favorite and hope to win impressively enough to end up the highest-ranked Group of 6 champion and potentially earn an automatic bid into the 12-team field.
League championship games
Power 4
Big Ten
Ohio State vs. Indiana, 8 p.m. (FOX) Saturday, Indianapolis
SEC
Georgia vs Alabama, 4 p.m (ABC) Saturday, Atlanta
ACC
Virginia vs. Duke, 8 p.m. (ABC) Saturday, Charlotte
Big 12
BYU vs Texas Tech, noon (ABC) Saturday, Arlington, Texas
GROUP OF SIX
American
North Texas at Tulane, 8 p.m. (ABC) Friday, New Orleans
Sun Belt
Troy at James Madison, 7 p.m. (ESPN) Friday, Harrisonburg, Va.
Conference USA
Kennesaw State at Jacksonville State, 7 p.m., (CBSSN), Friday, Jacksonville, Ala.
Mountain West
Four-way tie TBD vs. by computer ranks Sunday. Game is at 8 p.m. (FOX), Friday
MAC
Western Michigan vs. Miami (Ohio), Noon (ESPN), Detroit
