ATHENS - A trio of ESPN’s college football gurus said Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs would leave 2026 without a national title once more. During a pre-game segment picking the results of the College Football Playoff, ESPN’s trio of analysts picked Georgia to fail to get back to the College Football Playoff Championship Game. None of the three former SEC players agreed on which program would wind up winning it all. Greg McElroy predicted the Dawgs, as the No. 4 seed, would defeat No. 5 Texas in the quarterfinals. "Georgia wins the SEC and gets a rematch," Greg McElroy said Saturday of the matchup. But he had bad news for the Dawgs after that. The former Alabama QB predicted UGA would lose to No. 1 Notre Dame in the semifinals. McElroy predicted No. 2 Ohio State would defeat No. 1 Notre Dame in the CFP National Championship Game. Former LSU DL Booger McFarland said Georgia would host its first home CFP game ever when No. 7 UGA knocks out No. 10 USC in Athens in the first round to advance to play No. 3 Texas - his predicted SEC champion this season. He then posed a very compelling question:"Can Texas get over their Georgia problem?" McFarland asked. He answered that by advancing the Horns past the Bulldogs with Texas losing to No. 1 Notre Dame in the CFP National Championship Game.Former Gator QB Jesse Palmer also predicted that No. 5 Texas and No. 4 Georgia would meet in a quarterfinal. Palmer had the Dawgs falling to Texas in the CFP after winning the SEC for the third season in a row. "I think Texas wins that rematch," Palmer said of yet another big game between the two programs.The former Gator picked No. 1 Oregon to win its first national title - beating No. 3 Miami in the CFP National Championship Game. Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow