ATLANTA – So it turns out that conference championships between two playoff teams still have a lot of meaning… especially when one of those teams looks completely different after the game than before.

Almost a year ago to the day, the college football world learned that sometimes being undefeated isn’t enough to make the playoffs if you lose your starting quarterback in the process. Georgia isn’t undefeated, not even close, and the Bulldogs also lost Carson Beck, their starting quarterback, in the SEC Championship. How will Beck’s injury impact Georgia’s playoff chances going forward?

Georgia obviated a CFP selection committee decision by winning the SEC championship in OT 22-19 against error-prone Texas. While Georgia is unlikely to fall out of the No. 2 seed due to its strong schedule, it is possible. And it’s still an open question how injured Beck is.

Beck was injured on the final play of the first half, a messy sack-and-fumble that nearly ended in a Texas touchdown. Beck remained prone on the field for several seconds after receiving the sack.

At the end of the half, three Georgia quarterbacks began warming up on the sidelines, and none of them were Beck. Backup shooter Stockton got the nod and immediately led Georgia’s motivated offense to the first touchdown scored by both teams of the afternoon. Later in the third quarter, Stockton again led the Bulldogs deep into Texas territory, and Georgia extended its lead to 13-6 with a field goal in the final seconds of the third quarter.

Texas, in turn, faced two opponents on Saturday: Georgia and its own repeated errors and penalties. Texas penalties kept Georgia in the game in the first half, preventing two interceptions and a made field goal. Texas mistakes, including two missed field goals, gave the Georgia team hope and motivated the largely pro-Georgia crowd in Atlanta.

And then the fourth quarter came, and these two teams remembered that they were playing for the championship of the mighty Southeastern Conference. Texas struck first, tying the score at 13 with a dart from Quinn Ewers to DeAndre Moore for 41 yards and a touchdown.

On its very next drive, Georgia executed a flawless, gutsy fake punt on fourth-and-5 and caught the Longhorn defense napping with a nine-yard end-around run. Twice during the drive, Georgia fumbled the ball and twice managed to recover its own fumble. Georgia controlled the ball for 9:22 of the fourth quarter and went 72 yards on 16 plays, but couldn’t really turn the ball in and had to settle for a go-ahead field goal to bring the score to 16-13.

That put the ball in Ewers’ hands with 4:32 left and the SEC Championship on the line…and Ewers promptly threw the ball right into the hands of Georgia’s Daylen Everette. That was Everette’s second interception of Ewers of the afternoon and gave Stockton a chance to bleed out the clock.

But then Stockton’s inexperience showed itself to devastating effect. On a broken play, he threw a pass toward the Texas sideline that ended up in the hands of Texas’ Jahdae Barron. This gave Ewers another chance to prove himself. With just over a minute to play, he made a convincing four-and-four conversion, and his pass in the end zone to Ryan Wingo triggered a crucial Georgia pass interference call, putting the ball at the Georgia 14 at 35 remaining seconds.

Ewers couldn’t get the ball into the end zone, and that meant Texas’ fate depended on the foot of kicker Bert Auburn, who had already missed twice. His 36-yard attempt was successful, tying the game at 16 with 18 seconds left.

In overtime, Texas took the ball first. Ewers failed one pass after another in the end zone, and again the Longhorns had to settle for a field goal attempt. Auburn converted again, this time from 27 yards, giving the Longhorns a 19-16 lead.

That put the ball back in Stockton’s hands. After leading the Bulldogs to the Texas 12, he took off and ran the ball himself, taking a vicious, helmet-loosening hit from Texas’ Andrew Mukuba at the 4-yard line. One play later, Trevor Etienne penetrated the end zone to give Georgia a 22-19 victory. (Beck moved onto the field to pass the ball on the game-winning play, but he was noticeably uncomfortable.)

The question facing Georgia now is how injured Beck is and what impact that might have on the Bulldogs’ perception. Injuries and speculative impacts shouldn’t affect a school’s seeding… but as 2023 showed, injuries can undo an entire season’s worth of work in the eyes of the CFP selection committee.

Last year, Florida State finished the regular season undefeated and won the ACC Championship despite losing quarterback Jordan Travis to a season-ending injury. In selecting members of the four-team bracket, the College Football Playoff selection committee decided that Travis’ absence made Florida State a significantly worse team and instead selected Alabama as the fourth seed.

Georgia suffered no immediate loss of quality after Beck left the game; In fact, the Bulldogs looked much sharper around Stockton in the third quarter than they did around Beck in the entire first half. But the interception late in the fourth quarter was a brutal blow that allowed Texas to tie the game and force overtime. Luckily for Georgia and Stockton – and unlike last week’s eight-overtime win over Georgia Tech – the Bulldogs only needed overtime to erase that mistake and secure the SEC title.