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By the RFA Sports Desk<\/strong> \u00b7 Written by Pretoria Fields Radio\u2019s AI newsroom (Jarvis) from public game data. Editor: Tripp Morgan.<\/small><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Evening Edition \u2014 filed after the afternoon news cycle.<\/em><\/p>\n GEORGIA MONEYBALL \u2014 Sunday, October 25, 2026<\/em><\/p>\n Five ranked teams lost to unranked ones Saturday, and the idle Bulldogs and Gators both moved up for a Cocktail Party that looks less lopsided than the poll suggests.<\/strong><\/p>\n ALBANY, GA \u2014 \u00b7 By the RFA Sports Desk<\/small><\/p>\n Georgia didn't play a down Saturday, and it was the best Saturday the Bulldogs have had in a month. They sat on the couch like the rest of us, and by Sunday they had climbed from fifth to third in the Associated Press poll. That's how it goes in this sport. Kirby Smart has been telling anybody who'd listen that the dogs beat the dogs, and this weekend the dogs ate well, just not in Athens. Smart told reporters during the bye that he expected more upsets, and that this season would come down to who handles adversity best. He didn't have to wait long to be proven right.<\/p>\n Five ranked teams lost to unranked ones. Second-ranked BYU fell at Central Florida, 39 to 31, in double overtime, with a disputed roughing-the-kicker call along the way, and Scott Frost called it the weirdest end of a game he's ever seen. Cincinnati beat eighth-ranked Texas Tech 37 to 24, the Bearcats' first home win over a top-ten team in twenty years. South Carolina beat Tennessee 27 to 24 on a last-second field goal. Minnesota got Iowa and Wisconsin got Southern Cal. Georgia knows exactly how all of them feel. Auburn gave the Bulldogs the same medicine eight days ago.<\/p>\n A ranking you earn on the couch is borrowed, not owned.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The game folks are arguing about this morning is Texas 34, Ole Miss 27. The Longhorns led 24 to 3, surrendered 21 unanswered points, and still had to survive a last-second chance by the Rebels. Trinidad Chambliss threw three interceptions, a career high. That one matters in Athens twice over. Georgia goes to Oxford on November 7, and ESPN's Football Power Index calls that the likelier loss on the schedule at 66.5 percent, against 82.7 percent for Florida. And Florida has already beaten both Texas and Ole Miss when each sat in the top ten. The Gators' resume got shinier Saturday while they sat home too.<\/p>\n Florida rose to 17th in the Associated Press poll and 20th in the coaches' poll on its off week, and Gators Wire reports ESPN now gives the Gators a 16.6 percent chance at the playoff, up from 13.3, with just a 1.3 percent chance of winning out. Nobody in Gainesville is printing tickets. This is a team of two halves. WRUF counted 214 points in Florida's first four games, then 36 total in the two losses that followed, before the rally at Texas. Swamp247 grades the pass defense the worst in the SEC by success rate, with four interceptions all season. The Gators are either very good or very ordinary, depending on the Saturday.<\/p>\n Here is the trouble with rankings earned on the couch. They don't block and they don't tackle. Smart said during the bye that this team seems more beat up than in past seasons when he sends in injury reports, and Georgia Bulldogs On SI reports the week went to rehab and bringing along inexperienced reserves. The first availability report for Florida isn't due until Wednesday. The bookmakers have Georgia by 12 and a half with a total of 53 and a half, and the moneyline has crept from minus 500 to minus 550. Our Moneyball model says Georgia 30, Florida 21, a 70 percent win, but Georgia covers that number in only 41.7 percent of simulations.<\/p>\n London Humphreys, the Vanderbilt transfer Smart sent out to face the press this week, told reporters the players see the final scores like everybody else but have to worry about themselves. Khalil Barnes put it plainer: a bye week is still a week you either win or lose. Both schools' ticket allotments for Mercedes-Benz Stadium are gone, the Florida Times-Union reports, and they're telling folks to ride MARTA. Six days. A ranking you earn on the couch is borrowed, not owned. The first payment comes due Saturday afternoon in Atlanta, against a Gator team that has already shown it knows how to collect.<\/p>\n Written in the tradition of Lewis Grizzard, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 1946\u20131994.<\/em><\/p>\n Hear the desk read tonights report on Radio Free Albany, WPFQ 96.7.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pretoria Fields Radio publishes under its editorial standards and AI policy<\/a>. Spot an error? Write info@pretoriafieldsradio.com and we will correct it in the open.<\/em><\/small><\/p>\n\n
The Notebook<\/h3>\n
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