Georgia is looking to return to the SEC Championship Game for the fourth-straight year and is once again considered, by most, to be a top 10 team, with some putting the Bulldogs inside the top five as a potential College Football Playoff Contender.

College Football News outlaid one scenario in which Georgia has a decline in 2020. The outlet set out to pick one team in each Power 5 conference that could possibly disappoint this fall. The other teams chosen were Florida State, Minnesota, Baylor, and USC. On why it could be Georgia in the SEC, CFN began:

"We couched this last year with Florida, and we’re going to do the same thing with Georgia by starting out with this … It’s all relative. No, 2020 Georgia isn’t going 8-4, or anything like that. We predicted that Florida would be one of the top ten teams in college football before last year started – but would be a slight disappointment because it wouldn’t win the SEC East – and Georgia will begin this season in the top five, if not top three. The Bulldog talent level isn’t a problem after years of phenomenal recruiting, but there’s still a whole lot of work to do with ten players showing off at the NFL Combine, and with at least 13 starters expected to be off the Sugar Bowl-winning team. And that’s the problem everyone has to deal with – there’s no spring football to figure out all of the parts of the puzzle that have to fit."

Based on the outlet or metric, Georgia has been ranked anywhere from No. 4 to No. 13 in the early top 25 rankings. Bulldogs' head coach Kirby Smart said after the 2017 season that Georgia was not going anywhere. Following the 12-2 season in which the Bulldogs came very close to returning to the College Football Playoff, there are early signals that Georgia will once again be a trendy pick to return in 2020. CFN continued with its take on what could go wrong for the Bulldogs, pointing to both the small margin for error and the narrow window for which the season would be considered a success:

"Boo hoo – at least 120 other teams would kill for Georgia’s talent level – even this team is going to have to scramble a bit if everything gets going late this summer. Can and will the Bulldogs get it all together for Virginia to start the season? Yeah, of course, but unlike last season, they have to play Alabama, and they have to go to Tuscaloosa to do it. They miss LSU and Texas A&M from the West, but they have to face Auburn in their annual showdown and they get what should be improved Missouri, South Carolina and Kentucky teams on the road. They’ll be more than good enough to win any and all of those games, but again, it’s all relative. Finishing anything other than in the top four of the final College Football Playoff rankings will be a disappointment. Georgia is going to keep coming into seasons as one of the five or six teams with a realistic shot at winning the national title. However, have a misfire like last year’s loss to South Carolina, finally be on the wrong end of the Florida showdown, lose to Alabama, or even have another season like the last two with an 11-1 regular season and a loss in the SEC Championship, and the CFP dreams are gone with two losses."

Just how Georgia shapes up this year will continue to be a bit of a mystery, as the SEC has canceled all sport's activities and competitions for the rest of the 2019-2020 athletic year. That includes UGA's G-Day spring scrimmage which was set for April 18 and it effectively, while not officially, cancels spring practice as a whole. The University System of Georgia moved to online-only instruction for the remainder of the spring semester and no students can return to campus, even to retrieve their belongings, until they were told it was possible. But assuming the 2020 season is able to take place, looking ahead to Georgia's upcoming schedule, the Bulldogs will face No. 3 Alabama on the road, No. 9 Florida in Jacksonville, and No. 10 Auburn at home. Georgia is set to begin its season in Atlanta at Mercedes-Benz Stadium against Virginia in the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff on Monday, Sept. 7. With the Cavaliers on the schedule, that means that 10 of Georgia's 12 regular-season games will be against Power Five programs.

Not a subscriber? Sign up now to get access to everything Dawgs247 has to offer, including daily content from the largest staff covering Georgia athletics and access to the largest and most active community of Dawgs fans on the Web. Don’t forget to sign up for our Dawgs247 Newsletter. It’s free and a great way to get daily updates on Georgia football, basketball and more delivered straight to your inbox. Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.

Did you know Dawgs247 has a podcast? That's right folks. The Junkyard Dawgcast is available bringing you the best insight into the latest Georgia news from Rusty Mansell, Jake Rowe, and Kipp Adams. Catch the latest episode right here or subscribe on iTunes today!