{"id":368059,"date":"2025-11-10T00:56:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T00:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/368059\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T00:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T00:56:10","slug":"georgia-favored-over-texas-storylines-aplenty-in-sec-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/368059\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgia favored over Texas, storylines aplenty in SEC showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

ATHENS \u2014 Texas is back \u2014 in the top 10 of the AP Top 25 rankings <\/a>\u2014 but Georgia will be favored when the teams meet at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The No. 5-ranked Bulldogs opened as a 6.5-point favorite, per DraftKings.com, to beat the Longhorns in the SEC showdown at Sanford Stadium. <\/p>\n

There are multiple storylines for the game, chief among them, College Football Playoff hopes being on the line.<\/p>\n

Texas, with a 7-2 overall record, simply cannot afford another loss if it hopes to make the 12-team field as an at-large selection.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs, at 8-1 overall, have also yet to clinch a spot in the 12-team field and would not want to fall among the two-loss teams vying for higher seeding,<\/p>\n

The Longhorns, by most all counts, have underachieved after entering the campaign as the preseason No. 1-ranked team.<\/p>\n

When Texas fell out of the AP Top 25 following a 29-21 loss at Florida on Oct. 5, it was just five weeks into the season. That decline set a record for the fastest a preseason No. 1-ranked team had fallen out of the AP Top 25 poll.<\/p>\n

Now, Texas is back in the top 10 and riding a four-game win streak, well-rested and coming off a bye week as it readies to avenge last season\u2019s losses to Georgia.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs, winners of five in a row themselves, were twice an underdog to the Longhorns last season.<\/p>\n

When Texas was a 3.5-point favorite to beat UGA in Austin last season, it was the first time in 50 games \u2014 going back to the 2021 season-opening game against Clemson, when Georgia was a 2.5-point underdog \u2014 that the Bulldogs had not been favored in a game.<\/p>\n

Georgia shocked the Longhorns, 30-15, en route to facing them again in the SEC championship game.<\/p>\n

Texas was again the favorite, by 2.5 points, and the Bulldogs, again, beat the Longhorns, 22-19 in overtime.<\/p>\n

The game represented Gunner Stockton\u2019s first significant action, as he came on in relief of starter Carson Beck, who injured his elbow on the final play of the first half.<\/p>\n

Longhorns\u2019 quarterback Arch Manning is another headliner in Saturday\u2019s game, as his recruitment was believed to come down to Texas and Georgia.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs recruited Manning hard, and at one point were thought to be the favorite for his services.<\/p>\n

But Texas, with offensive-minded head coach Steve Sarkisian, won out with its \u201cAll Gas, No Brakes\u201d recruiting slogan.<\/p>\n

Manning entered the season among the Heisman Trophy favorites, while Stockton was more of an afterthought among SEC quarterbacks.<\/p>\n

But \u2014 surprise \u2014 it\u2019s Stockton currently seventh among the Heisman Trophy betting favorites (+2500) while Manning is 14th (+30,000).<\/p>\n

There will be more talk during the course of the week with the SEC Network\u2019s \u201cSEC Nation\u201d set headed to Athens to provide pregame analysis and hype for the marquee game in the league.<\/p>\n

Here are the odds for the games involving SEC teams this week:<\/b><\/p>\n

South Carolina at Texas A&M (-18.5)<\/p>\n

Arkansas at LSU (-6.5)<\/p>\n

Oklahoma at Alabama (-7)<\/p>\n

New Mexico State at Tennessee (-39.5)<\/p>\n

Florida at Ole Miss (-13.5)<\/p>\n

Texas at Georgia (-6.5)<\/p>\n

Mississippi State at Missouri (-6)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATHENS \u2014 Texas is back \u2014 in the top 10 of the AP Top 25 rankings \u2014 but…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":368060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1428,1369,1318,1317,1315,1316,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-368059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-college-football","9":"tag-college-sports","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-football","13":"tag-ncaafootball","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115522685315678411","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}