This hardly comes as a surprise.
Alabama and Georgia were overwhelming picks in July to win their respective Southeastern Conference football divisions and collide this Saturday in the league title game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Nick Saban’s top-ranked Crimson Tide (12-0) and Kirby Smart’s No. 4 Bulldogs (11-1) punched their tickets to Atlanta on Nov. 3, with each ultimately finishing ahead by multiple games in the standings to validate the lofty expectations that have accompanied them all season.
Saturday’s encounter will occur less than 11 months after Alabama rallied past Georgia for a 26-23 overtime triumph in the College Football Playoff’s national championship game, which also took place inside Mercedes-Benz.
“I think Kirby has done a fantastic job, and it’s no surprise to me,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said late Sunday afternoon. “Georgia has always had a pretty good program, and he has taken it to the next level. They have done an outstanding job of recruiting good players, but they have also done a good job of developing those players and getting them to play at a high level on a consistent basis.”
Alabama and Georgia didn’t meet in the first 20 SEC title games before producing a classic in 2012, when Saban’s Tide outlasted Mark Richt’s Bulldogs 32-28 in what essentially served as a national semifinal in the former Bowl Championship Series format. The Tide had a much easier time several weeks later during a 42-14 waxing of Notre Dame for the national title.