The second college football playoff rankings of the 2017 season came out Tuesday night. In the top five spots, they looked exactly the same as last week, filled by the Southeastern Conference's two top teams and expected SEC title game combatants - East Beast Georgia and West Best Alabama - followed by Notre Dame, Clemson and Oklahoma.
But what if none of them gets there?
What if Alabama falls at Auburn in the Iron Bowl after the Tigers take out Georgia this weekend to commence the rolling of Toomer's Corner as it may never have been rolled before for a non-Iron Bowl win?
Now what if those same two-loss Tigers beat the Bulldogs for a second time in the SEC title game? Couldn't that derail both UGA and the Tide?
Let's not stop there, however. The Fighting Irish travel to Miami this weekend to face the undefeated but largely unloved Hurricanes. All that changes, however, if the 'Canes KO Notre Dame, which all but guarantees that the Irish would miss the playoffs while suddenly opening the door wide for Mark Richt's new team possibly to compete for what Georgia never could do during his time there - win a national championship.
Then there's Clemson. Those Tigers already have that head-scratching defeat against Syracuse. A second loss to a dangerous South Carolina team on Thanksgiving weekend or a setback against Miami in the Atlantic Coast Conference title game would end any chance for them to repeat as national champions.
Is all that likely to happen? Probably not. But as good as Georgia has been, beating a dangerous Auburn team in Auburn won't be easy. And whether it's devastating injuries to its once-deep linebacking corps, quarterback Jalen Hurts' occasionally suspect passing skills or an offensive line that still struggles at times to mirror a championship unit, Alabama no longer looks nearly as invincible as it did in September.
But as tricky as these three weekends will be for the SEC in its attempt to wind up with both the Bulldogs and Bama in the football playoff, this weekend also promises to be a massive treat for those who love the sport of college football as much or more than they adore a single college football team.
After all, not only are the aforementioned games spread out in such a way that makes it possible to view at least parts of all of them, there are more Top 25 games worth watching from Friday night through Saturday night than one can count.
Let's start with CFP No. 9 Washington at Stanford at 10:30 p.m. Friday on Fox Sports 1. The Huskies - who made the CFP last year, losing to Bama in the semis - can lose no more and have any chance for a playoff repeat.
Now move on to Saturday, which features two huge noon games in Michigan State (No. 12 in the CFP poll) at No. 13 Ohio State (Fox)) and No. 15 Oklahoma State visiting No. 21 Iowa State (ABC/ESPN2).
But the day is just warming up, though perhaps not as much as your television remote, which could require oven mitts by the time the sun goes down.
Sure, Georgia at Auburn at 3:30 on CBS is a keeper, but Iowa at undefeated Wisconsin on ABC might be worth a peek now and then also. Then Bama-Mississippi State kicks off in Starkville at 7 p.m. on ESPN, though the Dawgs and Tigers might be too close by then to even risk stealing an early glance at the Tide and Bulldogs.
Finally, these games arrive at 8 p.m., the ND-Miami game on ABC with once-beaten TCU taking on once-beaten Oklahoma at 8 on Fox.
It's a Couch Potato Christmas if ever there was one.
But while the casual fan will be in gridiron heaven this weekend, the fan of a specific school or conference is already gnawing his or her nails, knowing well that his team's next loss might be the only loss the CFP selection committee needs to see to crush national championship dreams.
If you believe in karma, and you don't like the way Georgia treated Richt in his final seasons in Athens, you half-hope the Hurricanes beat the Bulldogs in the playoffs, either in the semifinals or finals, though whipping them inside Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium in the title game seems almost too surreal to believe.
What's less hard to believe is lordly Alabama missing the CFP fun for the first time since it began at the close of the 2014 season.
Bama could still win it all. But the Tide also look as if they could go down as early as this weekend against Mississippi State, and certainly at Auburn or to Georgia in the SEC title game, not even Nick Saban able to dodge the injury bug.
But as this weekend promises, no matter who wins or loses from this point forward, the path to the national championship should be must-see TV from now until the national championship game just down the road in Atlanta on Jan. 8.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.