Neither Vanderbilt football nor Georgia Tech are participating in the College Football Playoff.
However, it’s possible no teams had as significant an impact on it as the Commodores and Yellow Jackets. Vanderbilt (6-6) and Georgia Tech (7-5) will play at 2:30 p.m. CT Friday in the Birmingham Bowl in Birmingham, Alabama. While neither team will win a national championship with a victory, they can take solace in the fact they disrupted the college football scene.
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While the Commodores and Yellow Jackets don’t play one another regularly, they share a fascinating history series. Georgia Tech is 30-25-3 all time vs. Vanderbilt, but the last time the teams faced off was in 2016. The Commodores’ previous victory in the series was in 1941.
Georgia Tech opened the season with a significant win over then-No. 10 ranked Florida State in Year 2 under Brent Key. Vanderbilt later knocked off No. 1 Alabama and then gave a near-scare to Texas in Austin, Texas, later in the season.
Here’s what you need to know about how Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech impacted the CFP this season without playing in it:
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Vanderbilt upsets No. 1 Alabama
Vanderbilt picked up perhaps the biggest win of the 2024 college football season when it knocked off Alabama 40-35 on Oct. 5. The Crimson Tide was coming off an impressive 41-34 win over No. 2 Georgia, but Vanderbilt stood toe-to-toe with a giant. The win was the Commodores’ first over Alabama since 1984, and the first in 61 games over a team ranked in the top five of the Associated Press poll.
After the win, Vanderbilt fans rushed to the field to celebrate, and the school was fined $100,000 for it. But it was a small price to pay for the significant victory of the Clark Lea-led team. Diego Pavia threw for 252 yards and two touchdowns while also adding 56 yards on the ground.
Vanderbilt’s win knocked Alabama from the No. 1 ranking to No. 7 in the US LBM Coaches Poll in the Oct. 6 rankings. The Crimson Tide never climbed above No. 7 in the poll again the rest of the season and, following losses to Tennessee and Oklahoma, were excluded from the 12-team College Football Playoff.
If Vanderbilt had not knocked off Alabama in Week 6, the Kalen DeBoer-led team could have had the momentum to make a deep run in the CFP.
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Vanderbilt nearly takes down Texas
Even though it came in a loss, Vanderbilt proved it was no one-hit wonder against Texas, nearly taking down the top-five Longhorns team, a week after they lost their first game of the season to Georgia.
Vanderbilt took a 7-0 lead off a Pavia 18-yard run before falling behind 21-10 at halftime. The Commodores outscored Steve Sarkisian’s Texas team 14-6 in the second half, holding the Longhorns out of the end zone for the remainder of the game. Vanderbilt scored a touchdown with 46 seconds left to bring the score to 27-24, but couldn’t secure an onside kick to get one last crack at a game-tying — or game-winning — offensive drive.
With the win, Texas was able to secure a spot in the SEC championship game, where the Longhorns lost their second game of the year, both times to Georgia.
Georgia Tech knocks off Miami
While Florida State did not live up to its preseason hype, instead having one of the worst seasons in program history, it does not change the impact of the Yellow Jackets’ victory in the season-opener in Dublin.
While many expected that to be the signature win for Key and the Yellow Jackets, they one-upped it on Nov. 9 with the 28-23 upset victory over Miami. Georgia Tech pulled off the win despite throwing for just 99 yards.
Haynes King scored a 5-yard touchdown with 13:09 remaining in the game to give the Yellow Jackets a 28-16 lead. The Yellow Jackets held on the rest of the way for the victory and the monumental win for the program. While the loss did not eliminate Miami from CFP contention at the time of the loss, the Hurricanes eventually were eliminated from contention following a last-week loss to Syracuse on the road, which kept them from the ACC championship game.
Without the ability to be one of the five highest-ranked conference champions, Miami was effectively eliminated from the playoff — something in which their loss to the Yellow Jackets played a part.
Georgia Tech battles Georgia in overtime
The Yellow Jackets nearly upended the CFP one final time when they took in-state rival Georgia to eight overtimes in a 44-42 loss. Georgia Tech held a 17-0 halftime lead and led by as much as 27-13 with 5:37 left in the fourth quarter. However, the Bulldogs evened the game at 1:01 and took the game to OT.
Georgia eventually scored on a 2-point try by Nate Frazier, and the Bulldogs made the defensive stop to win and stay alive in the CFP race. While the Bulldogs would have still made the playoffs if they had won the SEC championship — as they did eventually did, also in overtime — a loss to the Yellow Jackets and Longhorns in consecutive games very well could have eliminated Kirby Smart’s team from the playoff.
Instead, the Bulldogs needed two overtimes to beat Georgia Tech and Texas by a combined five points.
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