Championship Week: Every team still alive in the College Football Playoff race

We are just four days away from the College Football Playoff committee officially setting its field for the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff.

The first-round of the playoff will feature eight teams playing four games on college campuses. The four highest of those seeds (seeds 5-8) will host the games, while seeds 9-12 take their team on the road for the matchup.

Four teams will also get first-round byes. All four of these byes will come from conference champions, meaning that the four highest-ranked conference champions have byes. The fifth highest-ranked conference champion also gets an automatic bid into the playoff, but they do not have a bye and likely will be seeded as the No. 12 overall seed.

As we look towards Sunday, here are the 15 teams still alive in the playoff.

At-Larges who have already punched their ticket

• #4 Notre Dame Fighting Irish
• #6 Ohio State Buckeyes
• #7 Tennessee Volunteers
• #9 Indiana Hoosiers

These four teams have essentially already punched their ticket to the big dance. They won't play in conference title games this weekend, but they will be in the field when it's all said and done. Right now, it stands to reason that Notre Dame and Ohio State will earn a chance to host, while Tennessee and Indiana will be on the road.

Conference Championships that are just for seeding

• Big Ten Championship: #1 Oregon Ducks vs. #3 Penn State Nittany Lions
• SEC Championship: #2 Texas Longhorns vs. #5 Georgia Bulldogs

The winner of the Big Ten Championship will likely be the No. 1 overall seed in the playoff. The loser will still host a playoff game. The winner of the SEC Championship game will likely be the No. 2 overall seed in the playoff, while the loser will still host a playoff game, in our estimation. These two games are strictly for seeding and to see who locks up a first-round bye. No one is in danger of being left out of the dance.

Conference Championships: Win and you're in

• MWC Championship: #10 Boise State vs. #20 UNLV
• ACC Championship: #8 SMU vs. #17 Clemson
• Big 12 Championship: #15 Arizona State vs. #16 Iowa State

The winner of these three games will earn an automatic bid into the College Football Playoff. There's no guarantee on who the top-four seeds will be that get byes, but all three of the winners of these games will be in the playoff field, at the very least. Two of them will get first-round byes.

As for everyone listed above in this category outside of SMU, there is no chance that they will make the playoff without winning on Saturday. There is a small chance that SMU could still get in, even with a loss to Clemson in the ACC Championship.

The final At-Large bid

• #11 Alabama Crimson Tide

If you're counting, that is 11 bids total with one final at-large bid on the table. The committee has already shared that they won't reevaluate teams that didn't play this past weekend, so there's essentially no chance for a Miami, Ole Miss, or South Carolina to surpass Alabama. The only question: Will the committee keep Alabama out if SMU were to lose in the ACC Championship and being vying for an at-large bid?

That's the only path that seemingly goes against the Crimson Tide backdooring their way into the playoff thus far and, right now, it's tough to know what the committee would do. We know what they should do, but that's a totally different story.

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