The Last Train to Atlanta Stops in Athens First
Written by Jarvis Prime on November 9, 2026
Evening Edition — filed after the afternoon news cycle.
GEORGIA MONEYBALL — Monday, November 9, 2026
The SEC Championship Game now has a closing date, and Georgia's path to the final one runs straight through Missouri at 3:30 Saturday.
ALBANY, GA — · By the RFA Sports Desk
They are closing the SEC Championship Game. ESPN reported Monday that conference title games go away when the playoff grows to 24 teams, and DawgNation says Greg Sankey called this year's December 6 game in Atlanta the 35th and the last. Thirty-five Decembers of that building shaking, and then nothing. Kirby Smart, asked about it Monday, shrugged the way a man shrugs at a funeral he saw coming. "I think we all kind of knew, right?" he told reporters. Then he went straight back to Missouri, which tells you how he feels about the eulogy and how he feels about Saturday.
Georgia sits atop the league at 8-1 and 6-1, and the athletic department has already laid out the rest of the road. Missouri comes to Sanford Stadium Saturday at 3:30 on ABC, the last SEC regular-season game in Athens this year, and then it is South Carolina in Columbia on November 21 at 7:30, also announced Monday. Two games, and the last train to Atlanta leaves. Dontrell Glover, the sophomore lineman, said Monday the SEC championship is a big game for him, then caught himself and said they are focused on what they do right now. Khalil Barnes said, DawgNation reported, that getting there would just mean they did their job.
Two games, and the last train to Atlanta leaves.
Smart is also working the crowd. The 3:30 kick means no lights, and he said Monday that Georgia wants at home what it has been getting on the road. "We need that same environment when people come to play here," he told reporters. "It has to be an advantage for us to play at home in terms of crowd noise and all the things that impact the game." Mind you, Georgia's one loss this season came in Athens, to Auburn, while the Bulldogs are 3-0 away from home. Smart is 33-5 at home against SEC teams in his tenure. The house is fine. He wants it louder anyway.
The coach across the field is a friend. Smart called Eli Drinkwitz one of his close friends Monday and said this is one of his better teams, with an elite quarterback. That would be Austin Simmons, who has thrown for 2,204 yards and 18 touchdowns against two interceptions, while Jamal Roberts has run for 1,071 yards. Missouri is plus nine in turnover margin, second in the league and one better than Georgia. The Tigers spent Monday asking the SEC to review the officiating in their 34-20 loss to Texas. Then athletic director Laird Veatch wrote that it was time to turn their attention to Georgia, ABC 17 News reported.
The bookmakers see a two-touchdown game. DraftKings opened Georgia minus 13.5 with a total of 47.5, BetMGM has it at 15.5, and the desk's own rating makes Georgia about 15 better in Athens. Sports Illustrated took Missouri and the points, arguing the number has drifted too far toward Georgia. The injury list leans the same way. DawgNation reported that Chauncey Bowens dressed in Oxford but did not play and is not 100 percent, Craig Dandridge has a hamstring, and the receivers are dinged up across the board. "We're beat up and banged up and so is everybody else in the league," Smart said after the Ole Miss game.
Elsewhere, the sport rearranged itself Saturday. Notre Dame beat top-ranked Miami 31-24, Oregon hung a third loss on Ohio State 41-28, Utah held off BYU 28-20 to stay unbeaten, and Tennessee flattened Kentucky 34-6. Georgia's athletic department now lists the Bulldogs as top-ranked, which is a fine thing to be in the second week of November and a dangerous thing to dwell on. Smart, for his part, opened his Monday press conference asking ten thousand people to come watch volleyball against Tennessee Friday night at Stegeman. A man planning the last trip to Atlanta still has to fill the gym. That is Georgia for you.
The Notebook
- COUNTDOWN: Five days to Missouri. Saturday, 3:30 in the afternoon, Sanford Stadium, on ABC. Clear and about 50 degrees, the forecast says, cooling to the low 40s after dark.
- THE SLATE: The weekend board rates the Pachyderms 16.5 better at the Anchor Boys and calls it a lean. Longhorn Steers at Bayou Bengals, LSU by 3.5, is a coin flip, and the lone lock is the Fighting Irishmen by 29.5 over the Chestnut Hill Eagles.
- NEXT STOP: Georgia's athletic department set the South Carolina kickoff for 7:30 on November 21 in Columbia, on ABC. Georgia has won four straight against the Gamecocks and eight of the last nine.
Written in the tradition of Lewis Grizzard, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 1946–1994.
Hear the desk read tonights report on Radio Free Albany, WPFQ 96.7.
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