No. 5 Georgia (10-2, 6-2 SEC, No. 5 CFP) vs. No. 2 Texas (11-1, 7-1, No. 2) at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Saturday, 4 p.m. EST (ABC)
BetMGM College Football Odds: Texas by 2 1/2
Series record: Texas leads 4-2
A Southeastern Conference championship and first-round bye in the College Football Playoff. The winning team advances straight to the quarterfinals at the Sugar Bowl on New Year's Day, while the loser is expected to host a first-round game at its campus stadium on either Dec. 20 or 21. Georgia is playing in the SEC title game for the seventh time in Kirby Smart's nine seasons as coach. Texas reached the championship game in its first season as an SEC member.
Georgia's running game vs. Texas' defensive front. The Bulldogs handed the Longhorns their only loss when the teams met Oct. 19 in Austin, using a strong running game led by Trevor Etienne in a 30-15 victory. But Etienne seems unlikely to play after missing the last three games with a rib injury. If Etienne can't go, Georgia will rely on freshman Nate Frazier and Roderick Robinson, who missed most of the season with a toe injury before returning for last week's eight-overtime victory against Georgia Tech.
Georgia: QB Carson Beck. In an up-and-down season, Beck got away with throwing three interceptions in the regular-season game against the Longhorns. He can't expect to be that fortunate this time around, so the Bulldogs need a clean game out of their fifth-year quarterback.
Texas: LTs Kelvin Banks Jr. and Trevor Goosby. Banks is Texas’ Outland Trophy finalist and a likely high draft pick in the 2025 NFL draft. But he went out early with an injury in last week's victory over Texas A&M.
The SEC championship game was held at the Georgia Dome for 23 years before moving next door to Mercedes-Benz Stadium when it opened in 2017. ... Texas is seeking its second straight conference title, having won the 2023 Big 12 championship game with a 49-21 romp over Oklahoma State before joining the SEC. ... Texas RB Quintrevion Wisner has 344 yards rushing in the last two games at an average of 5.8 yards per carry. The Longhorns ran for only 29 yards against Georgia in the first matchup. ... Even though Atlanta is considered a de facto home game for Georgia, the Bulldogs are only 4-7 in SEC titles games played in the state capital. ... Georgia's defense dominated in the regular-season victory over Texas.
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Georgia quarterback Carson Beck (15) runs against Georgia Tech defensive back Syeed Gibbs (16) during the second half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, in Athens, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
NEW YORK (AP) — As a Democrat who immersed himself in political news during the presidential campaign, Ziad Aunallah has much in common with many Americans since the election. He's tuned out.
“People are mentally exhausted,” said Aunallah, 45, of San Diego. “Everyone knows what is coming and we are just taking some time off.”
Television ratings — and now a new poll — clearly illustrate the phenomenon. About two-thirds of American adults say they have recently felt the need to limit media consumption about politics and government because of overload, according to the survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Smaller percentages of Americans are limiting their intake of news about overseas conflicts, the economy or climate change, the poll says. Politics stand out.
Election news on CNN and MSNBC was taking up too much of Sam Gude's time before the election, said the 47-year-old electrician from Lincoln, Nebraska. “The last thing I want to watch right now is the interregnum,” said Gude, a Democrat and no fan of President-elect Donald Trump.
The poll, conducted in early December, found that about 7 in 10 Democrats say they are stepping back from political news. The percentage isn't as high for Republicans, who have reason to celebrate Trump's victory. Still, about 6 in 10 Republicans say they've felt the need to take some time off too, and the share for independents is similar.
The differences are far starker for the TV networks that have been consumed by political news.
After election night through Dec. 13, the prime-time viewership of MSNBC was an average of 620,000, down 54% from the pre-election audience this year, the Nielsen company said. For the same time comparison, CNN's average of 405,000 viewers was down 45%.
At Fox News Channel, a favorite news network for Trump fans, the post-election average of 2.68 million viewers is up 13%, Nielsen said. Since the election, 72% of the people watching one of those three cable networks in the evening were watching Fox News, compared to 53% prior to election day.
A post-election slump for fans of the losing candidate is not a new trend for networks that have become heavily identified for a partisan audience. MSNBC had similar issues after Trump was elected in 2016. Same for Fox in 2020, although that was complicated by anger: many of its viewers were outraged then by the network's crucial election night call of Arizona for the Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden, and sought alternatives.
MSNBC had its own anger issues after several “Morning Joe” viewers became upset that hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski visited Trump shortly after his victory last month. Yet while the show's ratings are down 35% since Election Day, that's a smaller drop than the network's prime-time ratings.
CNN points out that while it has been suffering in the television ratings, its streaming and digital ratings have been consistent.
MSNBC can take some solace in history. In previous years, network ratings bounce back when the depression after an election loss lifts, When a new administration takes office, people who oppose it are frequently looking for a gathering place.
“I’ll be tuning back in once the clown show starts,” Aunallah said. “You have no choice. Whether or not you want to hear it, it's happening. If you care about your country, you have no choice but to pay attention.”
But the ride may not be smooth. MSNBC's slide is steeper than it was in 2016; and there's some question about whether Trump opponents will want to be as engaged as they were during his first term. People are also unplugging from cable television in rates that are only getting more rapid, although MSNBC believes it has bucked this trend eating away at audiences before.
The poll indicates that Americans want less talk about politics from public figures in general. After an election season where endorsements from celebrities like Taylor Swift made headlines, the survey found that Americans are more likely to disapprove than approve of celebrities, large companies and professional athletes speaking out about politics.
Still, Gude is among those discovering other ways to get news to which he does want to pay attention, including on YouTube.
MSNBC is also in the middle of some corporate upheaval that raises questions about potential changes. Parent company Comcast announced last month that the cable network is among some properties that will spin off into a new company, which will give MSNBC new corporate leadership and cut its ties to NBC News.
Some of the Americans who have turned away from political news lately also had some advice for getting them engaged again.
Gude said, for example, that MSNBC will always have a hard-core audience of Trump haters. But if the network wants to expand its audience, “then you have to talk about issues, and you have to stop talking about Trump.”
Kathleen Kendrick, a 36-year-old sales rep from Grand Junction, Colorado, who's a registered independent voter, said she hears plenty of people loudly spouting off about their political opinions on the job. She wants more depth when she watches the news. Much of what she sees is one-sided and shallow, she said.
“You get a story but only part of a story,” Kendrick said. “It would be nice if you could get both sides, and more research.”
Aunallah, similarly, is looking for more depth and variety. He's not interested “in watching the angry man on the corner yelling at me anymore,” he said.
“It's kind of their own fault that I'm not watching,” he said. “I felt they spent all this time talking about the election. They made it so much of their focus that when the main event ends, why would people want to keep watching?”
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The poll of 1,251 adults was conducted Dec. 5-9, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.
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Sanders reported from Washington. David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.
FILE - Jim, left, and Tamara Hamilton watch former President Donald Trump speak on television on Thursday, July 18, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File)
FILE - People watch as television screens show Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump addressing supporters on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, at Comet Tavern in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File)
FILE -Supporters of former President Donald Trump drink beers as they watch him speak on television on Thursday, July 18, 2024, in Seal Beach, Calif. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis, File)
FILE - People watch TV screens showing a debate between Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, right on screen, and Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump, at Sports Grill Kendall, where the Miami-Dade Democratic Hispanic Caucus had organized a watch party, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)
