Georgia won't get a revenge opportunity against Alabama until the SEC Championship at the very earliest, but if what we've seen through two weeks is any indication, the Dawgs might once again have the talent to challenge the big dog if or when given the opportunity.
Georgia's 56-7 win against a UAB that had -- past tense -- a top-15 defense was a massive Week 2 statement, one that, combined with the predictable Alabama sleepwalk past Mercer, closed the gap atop the SP+ ratings a bit. Alabama's ratings slipped a bit after beating a lower-tier FCS team, 48-14, but Georgia's rose as well, and after trailing by 8.1 adjusted points per game a week ago, UGA trails Bama by only 1.8 points now.
What is SP+? In a single sentence, it's a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency. I created the system at Football Outsiders in 2008, and as my experience with both college football and its stats has grown, I have made quite a few tweaks to the system.
It is, as always, important to note that SP+ is intended to be predictive and forward-facing. It is not a résumé ranking that gives credit for big wins or particularly brave scheduling -- no good predictive system is. It is simply a measure of the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football. If you're lucky or unimpressive in a win, your rating will probably fall. If you're strong and unlucky in a loss, it will probably rise.
(Note: Early-season data parsing issues have rendered data collection a slow process. Consequently, not every team's Week 2 game has been compiled just yet. The rankings will be updated on Monday, once data collection is complete, but most of the top teams' games are included.)