Two messages were sent by Tuesday’s rankings release.

FOX Sports personalities Colin Cowherd and Joel Klatt discussed the recently released College Football Playoff on a recent segment of Cowherd’s show and what those messages were.

Cowherd believes the committee put Georgia over Oregon, for example, because it thinks the SEC is the best conference, it ultimately wants two SEC teams and it gets great TV ratings. Cowherd added that the committee wants Clemson in, but also wants to make a note of the Tigers’ weak schedule.

“So LSU-Bama, close loser gets in,” Cowherd said. “Because they go, ‘Well, it’s the best conference, three of the top six are SEC teams,’ and I don’t have a problem. The loser of LSU-Bama, I have no problem putting in.”

Klatt said he largely agreed, however, Alabama being ranked at No. 3 was the biggest deal of the whole playoff.

“I thought the message that was sending was, ‘You don’t have any room for error,'” Klatt said. “You lose at home to LSU, you’re likely out. Because you’re going to be a non-division champ, you’re not going to go to your conference championship game. I think that’s going to be hard to overcome there.”

Klatt added that the road teams in the big matchups this weekend, LSU at Alabama, and Penn State at Minnesota, have margin for error.

If LSU were to lose, it would be a “helluva loss,” Klatt said.

Klatt added that the message sent to Clemson and Alabama is that because of their weak schedules, they don’t get the benefit of the doubt.

Here’s the entire exchange: