‘Bama out of CFP as conference championship games set … After a fascinating weekend of college football rivalry games, the lineup for the conference championship games has been set. The big story in college football, though, is the fact that for the first time since the CFP was introduced in 2014, Alabama will not be one of the four teams in the national championship playoffs. For those who missed it late yesterday, the Tide were knocked off 48-45 in a dramatic Iron Bowl loss at Auburn in which Alabama missed a late chip shot FG to tie the game and then allowed Auburn to run out the clock when a late substitution penalty gave the Tigers a final first down. Alabama, whose only previous loss was to LSU, had figured to still get a CFP invite despite not playing in the SEC championship game with a win over their intra-state rivals, but it was not to be and Nick Saban and his crew will have to make do playing in something like the Sugar Bowl on January 1st. Speaking of the SEC title game, it still should be a dandy as 2nd ranked LSU will play #4 Georgia in Atlanta next Saturday at 4 PM ET. The conference championship fest actually gets underway this coming Friday evening when Utah plays Oregon in the PAC-12 title game in Santa Clara. The upstart Utes actually have a chance to sneak into the CFP final four with a win in that one. Meanwhile, Ohio State will play Wisconsin in the BIG TEN title game next Saturday evening, while third ranked Clemson will play Virginia in the ACC final and Oklahoma and Baylor will meet in the Big XII championship game in Arlington. Ironically, other than the SEC final, the Big XII title game is the only one in which both participants still have a shot at getting into the college playoff, although it is also possible that the winner of the Sooners-Bears tilt could be the team left looking at the CFP playoffs from the outside depending on how the other games play out.
