From the Sports Desk

Yesterday was a crazy day. The undefeated, 12-0, repeat National Champion Georgia Bulldogs played horribly, especially on defense, and struggled to beat an unranked Georgia Tech. But it was still Georgia's 29th consecutive win, beating the SEC record previously held by Alabama. And it was good enough for the AP to pick the Bulldogs as No. 1 for the 24th week, the second longest streak in AP history (USC still holds the record with 33 weeks in 2003-2005).

Georgia got 52 of the 62 first-place votes. No. 3 Michigan, who beat No. 2 Ohio State, 30-24, yesterday, got the other 10 votes and moved up to No. 2. The Buckeyes fell to No. 6.

Personally, I would have guessed that Michigan, after beating the No. 2 team in the country, would have moved up to No. 1, since Georgia struggled with an unranked team. But every game is tough, and the AP pollsters had enough confidence in the Bulldogs to keep them No. 1.

The Washington Huskies needed a last-second walk-off field goal to beat unranked Washington State, but still moved up from 4 to No. 3.

Florida State struggled against unranked Florida, but still moved up from No. 5 and back into playoff contention at No. 4.

Oregon had arguably the most convincing win of the elite teams, beating Oregon State, 31-7. The Ducks moved up from No. 6 to No. 5. This is fortunate from a belts perspective - whoever wins next week's PAC-12 title game between Oregon and Washington will make it to the playoffs and bring the belts (you know which ones I mean - don't make me say it) with them.

Of course, the Week 14 poll doesn't matter with regard to championships, and it's the CFP rankings, not the AP Poll, that counts. But the AP Poll is a pretty good indicator of how the Selection Committee will be thinking, so it's good to be recognized in the former.

Here's the only thing that matters - Georgia HAS to beat Alabama in the SEC title game next week. Even after all we've done so far and all that we've accomplished, it's win or go home. The Bulldogs have never beaten Alabama in an SEC title game, but the Tide didn't look exactly invincible against Auburn yesterday. In fact, if it wasn't for a once-in-a-lifetime, 4th-and-31, TD pass at the last minute, Alabama would have lost the game. 'Bama can't count on miracles like that to happen twice to save their season.

And yesterday Georgia played without offensive starters Ladd McConkey and Brock Bowers, and used mostly second-stringers on defense. We let the scrubs get some playing time and the starters heal up before The Big Showdown. We survived that gamble, barely, and let's hope it pays off with a full and healthy team next week.