Long before this football season began, as far back as the heated days in July, pundits were pretending that the SEC could be left out of the College Football Playoff.
Some of those prognosticators -- mostly internet website guys driven to produce copy -- and many sports reporters around the country are envious of the SEC in general, and Alabama in particular.
If you step out of the gigantic footprint of the SEC, where football is Saturday's religion, it is easy to see why.
Not only does the SEC win, including more than its fair share of national championships, but it is drowning in money, thanks to former commissioner Mike Slive and ESPN, who created the SEC Network.
Athletic department payrolls have skyrocketed, but the costs are more than covered by TV revenue these days, and some schools have increased ticket prices.
Anyway, most teams have four games remaining, and it appears only one team can stop the Crimson Tide from entering the playoffs as the undefeated No. 1 seed: That team is Alabama.
The Crimson Tide's closest games were by five at Ole Miss and 19 at Arkansas.
The Tide -- with their true freshman quarterback and a stable of running backs, along with a defense no one ever claims they would like to have another shot at -- have pretty much crushed everyone else.
This week, Alabama and LSU are both off and preparing to play each other Nov. 5 in Baton Rouge. All the voodoo and LSU magic of playing at night in Death Valley probably won't make a dent in the composure and confidence of America's No. 1 team.
After that, the Tide finish yet another storybook season at home against Mississippi State, Tennessee-Chattanooga and Auburn.
Yes, both sets of Tigers -- LSU and Auburn -- will have a shot, but it will have to be their best shot.
LSU does have the nation's most talented running back, Leonard Fournette, and he's capable of just about anything, but dealing with the Tide's front seven for an entire game will be difficult.
Plus, LSU interim head coach Ed Orgeron knows if he is going to have any shot at being named head coach, he has to run the table. If he could beat Alabama, Arkansas, Florida and Texas A&M on successive weekends, it would be difficult to not name him the head coach after leading the Tigers to a 7-0 record.
The odds are against Orgeron.
If Alabama gets out of Baton Rouge with a victory, the team with the best chance of beating the Tide is their arch rival Auburn. The Tigers are 2-0 against Arkansas teams after beating the Razorbacks 56-3 and ASU 51-14, and they have improved every week and have confidence and speed on both sides of the ball.
The Tide could lose a game and still advance to the SEC Championship Game with a playoffs berth on the line against whatever inferior foe comes out of the SEC Eastern Division.
Write it in ink, Alabama and the SEC will be represented in the College Football Playoff.
The Power Five conference most likely to be left out is the Big 12. Oklahoma has two losses, and Texas is more like Texas State than the Texas of old.
Baylor and West Virginia are undefeated, and they play each other in the season finale, but the league doesn't start its convoluted conference championship until next year. It has decided not to expand and cash in on an ESPN clause that would have dumped hundreds of millions of dollars on the league, which leave it ripe for raiding.
So the SEC gets richer and could have another national champion.
Sports on 10/26/2016