Every year since it's inception in 2014, the four-team field in the College Football Playoff has included at least one team from the SEC. This year, if Nick Saban were to lead the Alabama football team to an upset over the top-ranked Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC Championship Game, there's a doomsday scenario for the SEC where they will be shut out from the Playoff for the first time. Today on the Pat McAfee Show, Saban discussed the upcoming SEC Championship game against Georgia, and the possibility of the College Football Playoff denying the SEC a bid into the four-team tournament.

It's not breaking news that an SEC lifer like Nick Saban believes that the SEC should be represented in the College Football Playoff regardless of who wins the SEC Championship. Of course, it's awfully convenient for Saban to be making that case now, with his Tide playing in the game, but I'd be willing to bet he'd be echoing the same message even if Bama weren't playing for an SEC title. And most seasons, including this one, it is hard to imagine the SEC not being involved in the National Championship game. It's just the way college football has worked for nearly the last two decades. Go back to 2006, when the BCS was still driving college football fans nuts, and the SEC has been represented in sixteen of the last seventeen National Championship games.

If Alabama were to beat Georgia in the SEC Championship Game, it would raise a multitude of questions. The way I see it, there are NUMBER of them, and I don't have any answers.

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  1. Should Georgia remain in the Playoff field when they've won the previous two National Championships and have dominated college football over the last three years like few teams ever have?
  2. If you put a one-loss Georgia team in the field, shouldn't a one-loss Alabama team (an Alabama team that beat Georgia in the SEC Championship) also be in the field?
  3. Assuming Texas wins the Big 12 Championship, shouldn't they be seeded higher than Alabama no matter what given the fact that they went into Tuscaloosa and won earlier in the season?
  4. Will one-loss Ohio State, who won't be playing during Conference Championship weekend, remain seeded higher in the Playoff field than both Texas and Alabama, even if Texas and Bama both win?
  5. Could an undefeated Florida State team be ignored altogether even if they win the ACC Championship simply because they're playing without their starting quarterback Jordan Travis?
  6. What happens if Michigan is upset in the Big Ten Championship game by Iowa? Do both Michigan AND Ohio State get shut out from the College Football Playoff then?

The only thing that seems pretty safe to assume is that the winner of the Pac-12 Championship game between Washington and Oregon is getting in. Unless, but even that feels murky if Georgia were to lose to Alabama.

Here's my guess how it plays out: no matter what happens on Friday and Saturday, there's going to be a team or two (or three) that is really pissed off about missing out on making the College Football Playoff field. And that will be the best case scenario for the College Football Playoff, which expands to twelve teams next season.