ATLANTA (Ticker) -- Another victory over Georgia could end up feeling like a loss for Louisiana State.
The third-ranked Tigers try to keep their national championship hopes alive Saturday when they play fifth-ranked Georgia in the Southeastern Conference championship game at the Georgia Dome.
Louisiana State (11-1, 7-1), the SEC Western Division champion, is third in the latest Bowl Championship Series standings and needs to move ahead of second-place Southern California in order to play for the national title in the Sugar Bowl. But passing the Trojans will not be easy.
Skyler Green caught a 34-yard touchdown pass from Matt Mauck with 1:22 left to lift the Tigers to a 17-10 win over Georgia on September 20. But another win over the Bulldogs could knock Georgia out of the top 10 of the final BCS standings, which would deny LSU some valuable quality-win points in the BCS computers.
A loss knocks LSU out of the national title chase altogether.
"We're really not focused much on (the BCS)," Tigers coach Nick Saban said. "We have a system in place that determines who the best teams are. We did the best we could in the games we had. Everybody could come up with quirks in the system, but it's the system we have."
USC has risen to second in the BCS system with a series of lopsided victories. The Tigers showed they could do the same with an impressive 55-24 rout of Arkansas last week.
Mauck threw four touchdown passes as the Tigers scored 38 unanswered points in the second and third quarters.
The Tigers are playing in the SEC title game for the second time in three years. Mauck, subbing for the injured Rohan Davey, was the Most Valuable Player in the 2001 SEC title game against Tennessee.
Georgia (10-2, 6-2) finished in a three-way tie with Florida and Tennessee in the East Division and earned the trip to the title game on tiebreakers.
The Bulldogs are the defending SEC champions, but likely can't climb high enough to play in the Sugar Bowl. However, they can wrap up an automatic BCS berth and relegate LSU to a non-BCS bowl with a victory.
"I think everybody's excited about playing LSU again, but I think we're more excited about playing in the SEC championship game," Georgia coach Mark Richt said. "Just to get in this game and defend the title is exciting to everybody."
Saturday marks a chance at redemption for Georgia kicker Billy Bennett, the normally reliable senior who missed field goal attempts of 43, 42 and 36 yards in the first meeting with LSU.
David Greene of the Bulldogs threw for 314 yards but was picked off twice, ending his string of 167 straight passes without an interception.
The game features the top two scoring defenses in college football. LSU, led by end Chad LaValais, an Outland Trophy finalist, allows just 10.6 points per game. Georgia's defense is anchored by end David Pollack and yields 11.8 ppg.
