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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Jeff Zegas

James Cook takes shot at playoff committee for Georgia snub, blames Saban

Buffalo Bills running back and former Georgia Bulldog James Cook did not hold back when asked about his alma mater being left out of this year’s College Football Playoff.  “I think they didn’t want to see us go back-to-back,” James told Sports Seriously’s Mackenzie Salmon, referring to the playoff committee.  

James, who won a national title with the Bulldogs in 2021, then took it a step further, conspiring that the snub had something to do with a particular Alabama head coach who recently called it a career.  

“I just feel like they knew that Nick Saban was gonna retire so they tried to sneak him in,” said James, adding that Alabama getting the nod “ain’t real, like, it’s fake.”

While there’s surely going to be some Crimson Tide fans who don’t agree with Cook’s position, he does bolster his point when he refers back to Georgia’s last title run.

“We lost one game to Alabama in the SEC Championship and haven’t been beaten the whole season. It was like the same scenario my last year in college. We won every game and lost to Alabama in the SEC Championship, but we still got in and then went on and won it all.”

James and the rest of Bulldog Nation will just have to live with not knowing what could have been, and with the playoff expanding next year, we surely won’t be seeing any more of these scenarios play out.  

Still though, that’s not going to be any consolation for Cook who stuck to his guns saying, “If Georgia was in the playoff, we win it all.”

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