Alabam fans received a taste of missing the College Football Playoff for the 1st time in 2019.

It couldn’t happen again, could it?

Right now, Alabama, Notre Dame, Clemson and Ohio State are ranked 1 through 4 in the CFP Top 25 ahead of the 3rd of 5 sets of rankings to be released on Tuesday. Texas A&M and Florida are at spots No. 5 and 6, respectively, with Florida set to face Alabama in the SEC Championship Game on Dec. 19.

That’s when things may get tricky. Florida is likely in the Playoff with a win over Alabama. But what about outside of that? Could the Tide miss out altogether if certain things fall into place? That’s the “doomsday” or “Armageddon” scenario David Pollack and Kirk Herbstreit discussed in the latest edition of their college football podcast (via 247Sports):

“Florida wins, I think Florida has to be in,” said Pollack. “You’re telling me your only loss is to A&M on the road by a field goal…? Florida’s 1,000% in.

Herbstreit feels it hinges on the result of the ACC Championship Game, which pits Notre Dame against Clemson, and how Ohio State does in the Big Ten Championship Game:

“Under that scenario, if Clemson beat Notre Dame and avenged that loss and Florida … beat Alabama, you’d essentially have five teams for four spots if Ohio State keeps winning. What people would knock Ohio State is the amount of games they played. But if they end up going to Indianapolis and they are Big Ten champions, it’ll be very, very challenging to the committee.”

Herbstreit mentioned the challenge the Playoff committee would be faced with in that scenario, with 2 conference champions in the field in Clemson and Florida, as well as Notre Dame if it ends the season with a close loss to Clemson after already having beaten them earlier in the season.

“I think it would be a debate between Alabama and Ohio State, personally, and I think you would have one as a Big Ten champion — under this scenario we’re talking about — and then you’d have Alabama who we all agree is the best team in the country, lost in their SEC Championship Game,” he continued. “And then it would be, ‘Has Ohio State played enough games, as a Big Ten champion, versus Alabama (who) the committee feels is the best team in the country, even though they lost their last game?’ I think Ohio State gets the nod under the rules of what they’ve set.”

Alabama fans won’t be happy to hear that.