UGA To Face Auburn In Bulldogs’ 6th SEC Championship Appearance
The University of Georgia football team hasn’t won the Southeastern Conference Championship game since 2005.
This Saturday, the Bulldogs have a chance to secure the championship at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. This is the sixth time Georgia will play in the SEC Championship game since it started in 1992.
UGA’s last appearance was five years ago, when they lost to the Alabama Crimson Tide 32 to 28. Now, the Bulldogs will take on the Auburn Tigers who dominated the first match-up earlier this month 40 to 17.
That game was at Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium. This time it’s in Atlanta.
Chip Chambers, a junior at UGA and the student section’s unofficial hype man, said he hopes the Bulldogs play better than last time.
“I think we have a lot of faith in our team, especially our coaches,” he said. “We might not win the game but campus is cautiously optimistic and we feel like we’re going to put up a good game.”
Dean Legge, a writer for Dawg Post, said playing at a neutral site should favor the Bulldogs.
“It’s hard to say that they’re not going to have an advantage of some sort playing in their home state,” he said.
Both UGA and Auburn are less than 150 miles from Atlanta, the site of the SEC football championship game since 1994.
Legge said there is little doubt the winner of this game will be in the College Football Playoffs.
“This is easily the most important Georgia-Auburn game in history,” he said. “And considering they’ve played 122 times. That’s really saying something.”
However, the two teams have never met in the SEC Championship. Chambers said if the No. 6 ranked Bulldogs can beat the No. 2 ranked Tigers there will be widespread celebration.
Chambers hopes the celebration doesn’t end there. A win by UGA would give them a chance to win their first national title since 1980.