ATLANTA -- Thirty-seven days from now, No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 2 Alabama will play in the Discover BCS National Championship Game in Miami.

We can only hope the contest between two of college football's most storied programs will be half as exciting as Saturday's SEC championship game at the Georgia Dome.

Because if you ask college football fans who live in places across the Southeast, many might argue they watched the national championship game between two SEC teams Saturday night.

And they might be right.

Eddie Lacy battered Georgia with 181 yards on the ground, averaging 9.1 yards per carry. John David Mercer/USA TODAY Sports

Defending BCS national champion Alabama got all it could handle from No. 3 Georgia in a 32-28 victory in front of a sold-out crowd of 75,624 fans, who watched the Bulldogs' last-ditch comeback hopes come up just short at the Crimson Tide's 5-yard line as time expired.

Alabama rallied from an 11-point deficit in the second half and then watched UGA nearly steal the game -- and a trip to Miami to play for the national championship -- at the end.

"I told them congratulations and now go handle your business," Georgia linebacker Jarvis Jones said. "It was a war. It was a battle all night. You can look at the scoreboard and see."

Georgia fans will be staring at their clocks for the next several weeks. After Alabama cornerback Dee Milliner's interception was overturned by replay with 43 seconds to play, Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray completed three consecutive passes, the last one a 26-yard catch by tight end Arthur Lynch that moved the Bulldogs to the Alabama 8 with about 15 seconds to play.

Inexplicably, Murray didn't spike the ball to stop the clock, as the Bulldogs were out of timeouts. Instead, Georgia ran a play called "Stout," which called for Murray to throw a fade route to either senior Tavarres King on the left side or sophomore Malcolm Mitchell on the right. When the Crimson Tide showed press coverage on the right side, Murray tried to throw to Mitchell.

But Murray's pass was tipped at the line of scrimmage by linebacker C.J. Mosley, and the ball ended up in the hands of UGA receiver Chris Conley, who slipped and fell at the Alabama 5. And then time expired.

"It got tipped," Murray said. "It was one-on-one. I was trying to throw the ball to one of our best receivers and let him make a play. We make one more play, and it's probably the greatest comeback in Georgia history."