This time last year, an undefeated conference champion was left out of the four-team College Football Playoff because it didn’t have its quarterback. Jordan Travis’s injury cost Florida State a chance to win it all and gave Alabama a seat at the table, so what about a two-loss conference champion that just lost its starting QB in 2024?

Georgia is the SEC champion. After Carson Beck suffered an injury on the final play of the first half, backup QB Gunner Stockton led the Bulldogs back from a 6-3 halftime deficit for a 22-19 overtime win against the Texas Longhorns. However, he’s an entirely unproven commodity heading into the uncertainty of the 12-team CFP. There’s no guarantee for the SEC Champion to be in the CFP, only the five highest-ranked conference champs. Could I interest you in 11-1 Army, the AAC champs?

After the game, Kirby Smart gave a not-so-promising update about Beck’s health.

“Yeah, he’s got an upper extremity injury,” Smart said. “We don’t know to what extent. Basically, we looked at it in there, and it looked okay. But he couldn’t have grip strength and throw the ball in the locker room. So it was a little bit painful for that. So we need to find out exactly what’s going on and have to MRI and look into it.”

Last year’s committee set a precedent about quarterback injuries, one that has been flipped by teams like Arizona State, which suffered one of its two losses with quarterback Sam Leavitt on the sidelines because of an injury, but it’s one that frankly, doesn’t apply to the new format.

Last year’s FSU team finished at No. 5 in the country, out of the CFP in the old format, but a team that would grab a first-round bye in this one. Georgia will be in and will almost certainly be the No. 2 seed with Oregon, Boise State, and Arizona State likely to grab the other top-four seeds. However, it is worth evaluating the outlook on the Bulldogs heading into the CFP if Beck is done for the year with a potential torn UCL like San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy suffered in the 2023 NFC Championship Game.

Beck has not been the first-round NFL prospect that many expected to return to Georgia after a successful 2023 as the team’s starting quarterback. However, after a flurry of 12 interceptions across five games, he’s played relatively clean, and if it weren’t for drops by wide receiver Arian Smith in the first half of Saturday, could have produced a better stat line than 7/13 for 56 yards.

This Georgia offense will never be elite, but with the defense playing the best it has all season, it doesn’t have to be. Stockton provided serious life in the second half against Texas, but the spark was momentary and faded fast. The sophomore finished 12/16 for 71 yards with a fumble that Georgia recovered and a ghastly interception that allowed Texas to tie the game. The Georgia kid became a cult-hero, but it’s fair to downgrade Georgia without Beck at quarterback, just not far enough to keep them out altogether.