Win or lose, Alabama is still bad for college football.

So, do you feel like we have been here before? Championship weekend in most major conferences but with little or no chance that the College Football Playoffs will go on without Alabama again.

The top-ranked and undefeated Crimson Tide are so good that they are bad for college football. The same team should not win every season – unless of course it’s NFL Patriots. Tsk. Tsk.

Alabama plays Georgia Saturday in the SEC championship game, and if the Tide wins that at least will leave one spot open for another league. It would be Bama, Clemson of the ACC, independent Notre Dame and either Oklahoma from the Big 12 or Ohio State from the Big Ten, bringing a third of the Power Five into the playoffs.

However, should Georgia beat Alabama as it very nearly did last season in the CFP championship game, that would insure a more closed party. As the consensus No. 1 team in the country, the Tide and Heisman Trophy favorite quarterback Tau would still be in the Final Four.

Clemson would go to the top seed depending how badly the 12-0 Tigers whip 7-5 Pitt in the ACC championship game in Charlotte, where they are a 26-point favorite over the Panthers in the worst ACC title game since Duke got drubbed by Florida State in 2013.

Notre Dame, which already finished the season undefeated, would be the No. 2 seed and Georgia would get in as the three seed. The committee would never leave out a one-loss Alabama team unless the Tide was blown out by the fourth-ranked Bulldogs.

So that would make it two from the SEC, one from the ACC and Notre Dame; and the Irish are very much associated with the ACC by virtue of being in the league in every sport but football. That would seem like a very closed party, wouldn’t it?

Such an occurrence would have critics clamoring for an expanded playoff, which will never happen otherwise. But having three of the Power 5 conferences left out would make a stronger case for turning the Final Four into the Great Eight.

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