The SEC rivalry can shake up the national picture as much as any game so far this season. It’s on CBS and CBSSports.com.

First quarter

Georgia 7, Auburn 0, 11:21. The biggest question coming in: could Auburn force the Dawgs to pass? They did, but UGA handled it. Jake Fromm responded to a third-and-7 with two 25-plus-yard completions, and Nick Chubb punched it in on the goal line from the Wildcat.

Pregame

On a weekend with three top-10 games and four other ranked games (and the Pac-12 probably being knocked out of the Playoff before Saturday even began), the most important game might be this ancient rivalry. With a win at No. 10 Auburn, No. 1 Georgia moves a couple more wins away from quite possibly clinching a Playoff bid regardless of the SEC Championship’s result, while Auburn can take one huge step through an impossible gauntlet and possibly take the first-ever two-loss Playoff trip.

So yeah! Big deal!

So who’s gonna win?

The S&P+ projection for Georgia's trip to Auburn — No. 1 Dawgs 26, No. 10 Tigers 24 — makes a good amount of sense. It's almost perfectly aligned with the Vegas line (Georgia -2.5), and since the national scoring average is closer to 28 points or so, it gives a slight overall edge to the defenses.

One problem: Auburn doesn’t really do mid-20s.

In 48 games since the start of the 2014 season, Gus Malzahn’s Plainsmen have scored between 21 and 28 points just seven times. They’ve been held to 13 or fewer points eight times, and they’ve scored 38 or more 21 times. Since the start of 2015, they have averaged 39.9 points per game in wins and 16.7 per game in losses. (The loss average sinks to 14.3 per game if you take out the wild 54-46 loss to Arkansas in 2015.)

There is little in-between for Auburn’s offense. Either everything works, or nothing works.

Still, UGA plays at one of the slower tempos in the country, and Auburn should make enough stops to keep the Dawgs at 31 or lower.

The question: is this one of Auburn’s games in the 30s or one of Auburn’s games in the teens?

The Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry has featured its share of incredible drama, from Fran Tarkenton's last-second touchdown pass to seal Georgia's SEC title in 1959, to Michael Johnson's jump-ball catch in 2002 (which sent UGA to the SEC title game), to, of course, Ricardo Louis' miracle catch in 2013.

Just remember, Auburn: those were all big passes. You've got the golden-armed quarterback. Time to see what he can do.

And yeah, this is a really big rivalry.

1. It’s got deep history.

Auburn-Georgia did not get the moniker of the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry by accident. The teams first played in 1892 at Piedmont Park in Atlanta in a game that was described as “the social event of the year.” (And you wonder why Southerners dress up for college football games.)

North Carolina-Virginia has the title of “the South’s Oldest Rivalry” despite kicking off later in 1892. It’s been played slightly more frequently than Auburn-UGA, which most recently took a year off during World War II.

Still, entering the 121st meeting, Bulldogs-Tigers is one of the five most-played FBS rivalries, passing the dormant Missouri-Kansas this year.

2. It’s familial.

Auburn is a stone’s throw from the Georgia border. The nearest major city to Auburn is Columbus, Georgia. Over 10 percent of Auburn’s students come from Georgia, twice as many as any other state (save for Alabama itself). There are more Auburn graduates in Atlanta than any other city, including Birmingham and Auburn itself.

Auburn plays on Pat Dye Field. Dye is a Georgia native and 1960 UGA graduate. Georgia’s athletic campus is named the Vince Dooley Athletic Complex. Mobile’s Dooley is a 1954 graduate of Auburn.

Auburn and Georgia fans bump up against one another on a constant basis. They work with one another, go to church with one another, cut one another off in traffic, and occasionally bond and reproduce together. That social dynamic means that this game, er, just means more.

3. It’s chaotic.

In the last 25 meetings, the home team has won only 10 times. Home field advantage is supposed to be worth three or four points in college football. In the Auburn-Georgia rivalry, it appears to be a burden rather than a benefit.

And four more reasons in there.