Game Of Century On! New No. 2 Tennessee Plays At No. 1 Georgia Saturday

Oh, it's on.

Tennessee moved up a spot to No. 2 in the Associated Press media poll on Sunday, sharing that spot with previous No. 2 Ohio State, setting up just the second Game of the Century in the last 11 years.

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Tennessee (8-0, 4-0 SEC) will play at No. 1 Georgia (8-0, 5-0 SEC) at 3:30 p.m. Saturday on CBS in the first top five pairing ever between the two programs.

Tennessee And Georgia Have Never Met in Game of Century

Games of the Century are defined as No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchups in a regular season. The Georgia-Tennessee game will be the 25th such meeting since the A.P. poll began in 1936 and first since No. 1 LSU won at No. 2 Alabama in 2019, which was the first one since No. 1 LSU won at No. 2 Alabama in 2011.

Tennessee, which overwhelmed visiting No. 19 Kentucky by 44-6 on Saturday night, gained ground on Ohio State (8-0), which had to come from behind in the fourth quarter to beat No. 13 Penn State, 44-31. But that game was on the road. The Volunteers received 18 first-place votes to 15 by Ohio State, and the two teams tied at 1,500 in total voter points.

Georgia, which beat unranked Florida 42-20 Saturday after finding itself in a 28-20 game in the second half, received 30 first-place votes and 1,528 points.

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The USA TODAY coaches' poll still had Ohio State No. 2 with 1,505 points and 13 first-place votes to 1,455 points and five first-place votes for No. 3 Tennessee. Georgia was No. 1 with 1,552 points and 45 first-place votes.

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The first College Football Playoff poll of the season comes out Tuesday night and could also name Georgia and Tennessee 1 and 2, or possibly Tennessee No. 1 and Georgia No. 2. The CFP poll decides the four-team postseason playoff for the national championship.

Georgia and Tennessee have not met in a top 10 game since 2005 when the No. 5 Bulldogs beat the No. 8 Vol, 27-14, in Knoxville. Georgia leads the series 26-23-2.

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The rest of the A.P. top 10 had No. 4 Michigan (8-0), No. 5 Clemson (8-0) No. 6 Alabama (7-1), No. 7 TCU (8-0). No. 8 Oregon (7-1), No. 9 USC (7-1) and No. 10 UCLA (7-1).

The second 10 had Ole Miss at No. 11, followed by No. 12 Utah, No. 13 Kansas State, which upset No. 9 Oklahoma State 48-0 on Saturday, No. 14 Illinois, No. 15 LSU, No. 16 Penn State, No. 17 North Carolina, No. 18 Oklahoma State, No. 19 Tulane and No. 20 Wake Forest.

The bottom five was No. 21 North Carolina State, No. 22 Syracuse, No. 23 Liberty, No. 24 Oregon State and No. 25 Central Florida.

Written by
Guilbeau joined OutKick as an SEC columnist in September of 2021 after covering LSU and the Saints for 17 years at USA TODAY Louisiana. He has been a national columnist/feature writer since the summer of 2022, covering college football, basketball and baseball with some NFL, NBA, MLB, TV and Movies and general assignment, including hot dog taste tests. A New Orleans native and Mizzou graduate, he has consistently won Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) and Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) awards since covering Alabama and Auburn at the Mobile Press-Register (1993-98) and LSU and the Saints at the Baton Rouge Advocate (1998-2004). In 2021, Guilbeau won an FWAA 1st for a game feature, placed in APSE Beat Writing, Breaking News and Explanatory, and won Beat Writer of the Year from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association (LSWA). He won an FWAA columnist 1st in 2017 and was FWAA's top overall winner in 2016 with 1st in game story, 2nd in columns, and features honorable mention. Guilbeau completed a book in 2022 about LSU's five-time national champion coach - "Everything Matters In Baseball: The Skip Bertman Story" - that is available at www.acadianhouse.com, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble outlets. He lives in Baton Rouge with his wife, the former Michelle Millhollon of Thibodaux who previously covered politics for the Baton Rouge Advocate and is a communications director.