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A massive win over Alabama in the Iron Bowl last week has No. 2 Auburn in position to secure their first college football playoff appearance, but one major hurdle stands in their way: No. 6 Georgia and the SEC Championship.
Kickoff for the massively important game is scheduled for Saturday at 4 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on CBS. If you don’t have cable or can’t get to a TV, you can watch the game online, on your phone or on another streaming device by signing up for one of the following cable-free, live-TV streaming services. They cost a monthly fee but all come with a free trial, so you can watch today’s game at no cost. Just follow the links to sign up and be watching for free within a couple minutes:
CBS All Access: This service lets you watch a live stream of your local CBS channel (most markets included) for $5.99 per month. It comes with a free 7-day trial, and you can watch on your computer via the CBS website, or on your phone, tablet or streaming device via the CBS app
FuboTV: CBS (live in at least 20 markets) is included in the “Fubo Premier” channel package, which gives you access to 70-plus channels and costs $19.99 per month for the first two months and $39.99 per month after that. It also comes with a free 7-day trial, and you can watch on your computer via the Fubo website, or on your phone, tablet or streaming device via the FuboTV app
Preview
For all the shuffling in and out of the college football playoff picture that SEC teams have done over the past month, this one is pretty simple: Win and you’re in. Per FiveThirtyEight’s projections, a win for Auburn puts them at greater than 99 percent to make the playoffs, while a victory for Georgia has the Bulldogs’ odds at 96 percent. No more worrying about Alabama or the committee or strength of schedule. Just win.
Oddsmakers favor the Tigers by three points, and it’s tough to argue. Winners of five straight, they own two of the most impressive wins of the college football season–a 40-17 drubbing of this same Georgia squad when the Bulldogs were No. 1, and a 26-14 win over Alabama, also when the Crimson Tide were No. 1–over the last month.
However, those two wins both came at Jordan-Hare, and the Tigers–who are 3-2 on the road with their best win coming at Texas A&M–still need to prove they can be elite away from home. That’s not to say they can’t do exactly that, but it will serve as their final test before the playoffs.
As for Georgia, if they plan on avenging that loss from a couple weeks ago, it starts up front. The Bulldogs, who rank 10th in the country in yards per rush (5.8) and 10th in rushing yards per game (264.0) have run rampant over everyone this year–with the exception of Auburn, who held Nick Chubb and Sony Michel to a putrid 48 yards on 20 carries.
“When you don’t get movement up front, it’s tough. It’s tough sledding, especially in our league,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “I think Sony and Nick, they understood going into that game it was going to be tough. I certainly didn’t expect it to be that tough, but it’s one of the things that we’ve moved on past that.”
With Auburn seeking its first SEC title since 2013 and Georgia looking to win the conference for the first time in 12 years, this sets up as a thrilling battle–no matter how lopsided the first matchup proved to be.