It's the biggest college football game of the year. So far.

A matchup of SEC heavyweights that doesn’t come along often in the regular season.

Georgia-Alabama Saturday night will pit winners of five of the last nine national championships and two of the top contenders to win the CFP trophy this year.

The game is drawing ESPN’s College GameDay to Tuscaloosa as well as former President Donald Trump (with one particular swing state fan base and TV eyeballs nationwide tuning in).

But in this new era of a 12-team playoff, the stakes are not as high as Bulldogs-Crimson Tide matchups in recent years.

How Georgia football's recent title hopes have been tied to Alabama

After all, six of the last eight meetings have been played with either a national title or playoff berth at stake for at least one team. In seven of those games, the teams were ranked in the top 10, six featuring a top-5 matchup.

Georgia went 12-0 in the regular season last year but its 27-24 SEC championship game loss to Alabama put the Tide in the playoff and left the one-loss Bulldogs out, ending their chances of a three-peat.

“It kind of stopped us from getting where we wanted to go,” senior inside linebacker Smael Mondon said.

Two years earlier, Alabama’s 41-24 SEC championship win ensured the Crimson Tide got into the playoff while Georgia already was safely in the field.

The Bulldogs were left one spot out of the playoffs at 11-2 after a 35-28 loss to Alabama in the 2018 SEC championship game.

Georgia is beginning a seven-game stretch that includes four teams ranked in the top 6 of the US LBM Coaches Poll including No. 2 Texas and No. 5 Ole Miss on the road and No. 6 Tennessee (more imposing now as tops in nation in fewest yards allowed per game) at home. The Bulldogs are No. 1 in that poll.

The Bulldogs have won 42 straight regular season games and haven’t loss a regular season game since 2020, but going 12-0 against this slate would be taking it to another level.

Georgia coach Kirby Smart was asked Monday what beating Alabama Saturday would mean.

“It means we've got to get ready for Auburn,” he said of the next game on the schedule. “It's really that simple, guys. … Win or lose, the next one's going to be really hard and the next one's going to be really hard and the next one's going to be really hard.”

Georgia already has a win over No. 15 Clemson on its resume. Since a 34-3 loss to Georgia, the Tigers have outscored Appalachian State and N.C. State 125-55.

“That team with two losses late in the year that has played a tough schedule is going to be fighting and scratching to earn that 12th spot,” Smart told ESPN.com in March.

Georgia football's schedule is primed for the new playoff format

With Georgia’s schedule, three losses may even still get them in the 12-team playoff field.

So soak up what’s only the third regular-season clash between Georgia and Alabama since the 2008 season, a matchup of top 5 opponents. The Bulldogs are No. 2 in the AP poll. Alabama is No. 4 in both the coaches and AP.

“It’s fun, really,” Mondon said. “This is the kind of game you dream about playing as a kid. A big game like this.”

Just remember there are meaningful games with major playoff implications still to come. Win or lose.

“I really look at it like this is a hell of an opportunity for our kids, our program, national stage,” Smart said. “We’re on the national stage a lot, we’ve been on the national stage a lot. Especially the last three or four years. It’s a reason kids want to come to Georgia. They say I want to play in games like that. …Kids want to have an opportunity to play in those tight games. We’re going to have more of them after this.”

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Georgia-Alabama top 5 clash must be viewed through 12-team playoff prism