Running down the list of most bowl projections, almost everything checks out.

Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson and Washington in the College Football Playoff. Check all that.

You can complain about a non-division winner (Ohio State) being included, but unless the process spells out that conference and division champions are going to have a disproportional edge in being selected, Ohio State is the right pick.

In the Cotton Bowl you have Penn State, the team that beat out Ohio State and Michigan for the Big Ten East title. Check. And you have Western Michigan, the county’s “other” undefeated team (with a 2-0 record against the Big Ten). Check.

In the Orange you have 9-3 Louisville and 10-2 Michigan. Nice. In the Rose, you have either USC or Colorado vs. Wisconsin. Beautiful.

Then, it’s the Sugar. You have 9-2 Oklahoma vs. …

Auburn?

That’s the best the SEC can do this year?

Yes it is. Auburn, with an 8-4 record and ranked No. 14 in the College Football Playoff rankings, is the best thing the SEC has left to offer this year after Alabama. This year, the SEC stands for Somewhat Elite Conference.

It’s like Pete Rozelle built this year’s SEC with his NFL “parity” model but forgot to send the memo to Alabama.

The Sugar Bowl pits the best Big 12 team — that will, more than likely, be the champion this year (the winner of Bedlam) against the best available SEC team.

And here are your available SEC teams: Florida (8-3), Auburn (8-4), Texas A&M (8-4), Tennessee (8-4) and LSU (7-4).

Yikes.

No. 15 Florida is the wild card. As the Eastern Division champion with a 6-2 SEC record, the Gators have the best conference record outside of Alabama, but the Gators have a knack for looking really bad against good teams.

Like Tennessee, Arkansas and Florida State, three teams that beat UF by a combined 99-52 record (average margin of defeat: 15.7 points). The Gators’ best win was a 16-10 squeaker over LSU in a game where the Tigers almost doubled Florida’s yards, if not for one 98-yard play by the Gators. Yet, the Gators still managed to find a way to win.

But Florida has a shot to be the only team outside of Alabama to do something on a national stage and that would be beating Alabama in the SEC Championship Game.

We’re not expecting that to happen either.

It hasn’t always been that way this year. We spent these Tuesday nights for much of the season speculating on whether teams like LSU, Auburn and Florida still had paths to the playoffs. Until recently, some of them did.

But that would quickly be followed by a stubbing of the toe.

And as of last week, we still had three teams that looked like they could end the regular season with viable Sugar Bowl resumes.

But Florida, with its chance to go to 9-2, took a 31-13 whipping from Florida State. Texas A&M gave up 54 points to an LSU team that earlier this season fired Les Miles as head coach because the offense was terrible. And Auburn caught Alabama playing poorly and still lost by three touchdowns, 30-12.

So here we are. The regular season is over and we’re down to two Sugar Bowl candidates. Florida, you’re up. Show us you’re Sugar Sweet. It won’t hurt Alabama — the Tide are making the playoffs either way.

If that doesn’t work out, congratulations Auburn, you’ve backed into New Orleans.

Maybe the Sugar Bowl will finally be the night somebody from the SEC looks deserving of the Sugar Bowl.