Is Georgia out of College Football Playoff? Closer look at CFP field after Sugar Bowl

Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs emerged as the SEC Champions by defeating the Texas Longhorns this season. This earned them an automatic bye in the first round of the 12-team College Football Playoff. Thus, the Bulldogs were scheduled to take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the CFP quarterfinal Sugar Bowl showdown.

The 2025 Sugar Bowl semifinal game between these two teams took place on Wednesday at 4 p.m. EST. So which team secured the victory to move onto the semifinals of this season's College Football Playoff?

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Is Georgia out of the College Football Playoff?

Unfortunately, for Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs, they were eliminated by the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Marcus Freeman and his team secured a 23-10 victory over the Bulldogs in the Sugar Bowl and secured their spot in the semifinal showdown against the Penn State Nittany Lions.

After a scoreless first quarter, Georgia took the lead in the second quarter thanks to a 41-yard field goal by Peyton Woodring. However, Notre Dame quickly replied with an FG of its own. It then capitalized on the momentum with another 48-yard FG by Mitch Jeter followed by a 13-yard TD pass from QB Riley Leonard to Beaux Collins.

At the end of the first half, Notre Dame had a 13-3 lead against Georgia. With QB Carson Beck injured, the Bulldogs had to rely on backup Gunner Stockton, who finished the night with 234 yards and one passing TD. Unfortunately, this was not enough for the Bulldogs to make a comeback against the Fighting Irish, who scored another touchdown and a field goal in the second half.

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Kirby Smart defends aggressive play calls against Notre Dame

During the game in the first half, Kirby Smart decided to let Gunner Stockton drop back to pass from the 25-yard line with seconds left. This was a risky move to make instead of running out the clock and regrouping for the second half.

Unfortunately for Georgia, this backfired and ended with Notre Dame's QB Riley Leonard making a TD pass one play later. In the post-game press conference, Kirby Smart talked and tried to justify the decision-making during the high-octane quarterfinal showdown:

"Typically, when you're down, you need every possession you can have, and we made a decision that we were going to be aggressive and we were going to try to go two-minute, and that's what everything says you should do.

"You can't give up possessions when you're trailing. We felt that we had a little quick-game pass. Certainly not counting on getting beat that quick at left tackle, and got a sack-fumble, which gave them some momentum."

The Notre Dame vs Penn State Orange Bowl semifinal is scheduled to be played on Thursday. It is set to kick off at 7:30 p.m. EST at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.