The 2022 SEC Championship Game participants are now official as Georgia and LSU on Saturday each clinched berths into the game following critical wins over Mississippi State and Arkansas, respectively. Winners of two of the last three College Football Playoff National Championships, the Bulldogs (2021) and Tigers (2019) will meet on Saturday, Dec. 3 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta with a return to the CFP likely on the line for at least one of the programs.
No. 1 Georgia (10-0, 7-0 SEC) beat Mississippi State 45-19 on the road thanks to another impressive performance by its defense. It held the vaunted Air Raid attack of MSU coach Mike Leach to just 310 total yards and pulled away with four touchdowns in the second half.
UGA coach Kirby Smart's crew has won the SEC East and made the SEC Championship Game in five of the last six years. It lost last season's contest 41-24 to Alabama but got revenge on the Crimson Tide on Jan. 10, 2022, in Indianapolis when the Dawgs won their first national championship since 1980.
No. 7 LSU (8-2, 6-1 SEC) topped Arkansas 13-10 on the road in chilly conditions to take care of its part of the equation. The Tigers then sat back and watched the No. 9 Tide hold on to a 30-24 win over No. 11 Ole Miss, which clinched the SEC West for LSU given it has head-to-head wins over both programs.
In Year 1 under coach Brian Kelly, the Tigers lost their opener to Florida State when they missed a game-tying extra point with no time on the clock. Their lone SEC defeat came on Oct. 8 when they fell 40-13 to Tennessee. Since then, quarterback Jayden Daniels has emerged as one of the SEC's top dual-threat quarterbacks, and linebacker Harold Perkins Jr. has made a case to be an All-American selection as a freshman.
LSU has claimed its first SEC West title since 2019 when quarterback Joe Burrow and the Tigers beat Georgia in Atlanta en route to their first national championship since 2007. Will it be the Dawgs going back-to-back or the Tigers attempting to keep them out of the four-team CFP altogether?
We will find out on Saturday, Dec. 3 in Atlanta when the 2022 SEC Championship Game kicks off at 4 p.m. ET and airs live on CBS.
