ATLANTA — The SEC Championship stage is set.
For the second time in the past three years, Georgia and Alabama will battle it out for Southeastern Conference bragging rights in Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
When it comes to the big game, Alabama has been Georgia's kryptonite. Despite the Dawgs getting revenge and besting 'Bama in the 2022 College Football Playoff National Championship game, the Tide owns a perfect 3-0 record against the Dawgs in the SEC title game.
This year, however, Georgia is favored by more than they ever have in any game against Alabama. In the 2021 SEC Championship Game and subsequent rematch in the 2022 CFP title game, the Dawgs were ever-so-slight favorites.
But after UGA dismantled Ole Miss 52-17 at home a few weekends ago, Georgia passed two road tests at Tennessee and Georgia Tech to close the season. As the Bulldogs won both of those, they found themselves to be a 5-point favorite against Alabama -- who has found their footing since an early-season loss at home to Texas.
Here's how Georgia and Alabama's three games have gone in the SEC title thus far:
- 2012: Alabama def. Georgia 35-28
- A blocked field goal return by Alec Ogletree sparked the Dawgs, but a late touchdown from A.J. McCarron to Amari Cooper gave Alabama the lead -- before a late Aaron Murray almost-accidental completion to Chris Conely caused the game to run out of time in the Crimson Tide red zone.
- 2018: Alabama def. Georgia 35-28
- Roughly one year after Alabama true freshman QB Tua Tagovailoa came off the bench in relief of Jalen Hurts at halftime to beat Georgia in the 2021 CFP title game, Hurts returned the performance to the Dawgs in a complete role reversal. Hurts came off the bench for Tagovailoa and was nearly perfect down the stretch -- throwing a 10-yard touchdown to Jerry Jeudy to tie it in the 4th quarter before rushing it in from 15 yards out with just over a minute left to win it.
- 2021: Alabama def. Georgia 41-24
- In the first SEC title game the Dawgs were favored in, they went up 10-0 quickly behind the arm of Stetson Bennett. The Tide answered with 24 points in the second quarter, including 17 unanswered, to lead 24-17 at the break. They would shut the Dawgs' offense down in the second half and go on to win 41-24.
Georgia will be the road team and wear their white uniforms, while Alabama will be home and don their Crimson jerseys. The game flip-flops the home team to the SEC East and West each year. This will be the last time two teams from the SEC East and West square off in the SEC Championship game, as divisions get eliminated in 2024.
The Dawgs and the Crimson Tide will square off on Saturday, Dec. 2, at 4 p.m. inside The Benz, with the game televised on CBS for the last year.