Saturday is as big as it gets for eight Power 5 teams playing in conference championship games.

And for one team sitting at home as well.

This weekend really comes down to four games: No. 2 Auburn vs. No. 6 Georgia for the SEC title, No. 3 Oklahoma vs. No. 11 TCU for the Big 12 crown, No. 3 Wisconsin vs. No. 8 Ohio State for the Big Ten championship and No. 1 Clemson vs. No. 7 Miami for ACC honors.

Sorry, Pac-12, but your title game was Friday and you have no hope of reaching the College Football Playoff, so you’re out of this conversation.

One big brand name from the SEC is missing from Saturday’s slate, of course: No. 5 Alabama. The Crimson Tide have a great case for making the Playoff and would seem pretty certain to do so if they get a bit of help.

But the Tide must have help. That’s the top juicy storyline going into Championship Weekend.

Alabama watches, waits

The Crimson Tide won 11 in a row to start the season and sat either No. 2 (in the first two College Football Playoff rankings) or No. 1 (in every other poll in every other week) all year until this week. They have been to the national championship game two years in a row and won one. Alabama is the only program in America to go to the Playoff in each of the CFP’s previous three seasons.

None of that matters today.

After its Iron Bowl loss last week at Auburn, Alabama fell to No. 5 in the CFP rankings and lost the tiebreaker in the SEC West. So Crimson Tide fans will have nothing better to do than enjoy the sun, mow the yard, maybe grab some Dreamland BBQ and await a favor from elsewhere. It might be a bit of torture for Tide fans to watch their most hated rivals play for the SEC championship, but in terms of quality Atlanta is hosting the best collection of talent all weekend, so let’s start there.

SEC championship game

This is a scenario so simple even the NCAA can’t screw it up. Auburn and Georgia meet in Atlanta’s new Mercedes-Benz Stadium (4 p.m. Eastern, CBS) and the winner will go to the CFP semifinals. The loser settles for another New Year’s 6 bowl.

RELATED: Ultimate SEC title game preview | Who wins? Staff predictions

It feels weird for Bama to have almost no rooting interest in an SEC title game, apart from hoping Auburn loses because that’s just what Tide fans do when they roll out of bed in the morning, but it’s true. This game will have zero impact on any Playoff hopes in Tuscaloosa.

It’s hard to see a scenario in which the Auburn-Georgia result even changes where Alabama, should it get in, would be seeded. Auburn is obviously going to be the first or second seed with a win, and Georgia is only one spot behind the Crimson Tide. If the Bulldogs win they would have to jump ahead of the Tide (and Auburn, obviously), so the net result for Alabama would be the same — with one SEC team ahead of them in the rankings. Other games have way more meaning for the SEC’s hopes of having two Playoff teams, like:

Big Ten championship game

Oklahoma-TCU (more on that game later) is early Saturday so by the time 8 p.m. rolls around everybody will know how much this game in Indianapolis actually means in the Playoff picture.

Or, more specifically, all parts of Alabama not painted burnt orange and navy blue will know how closely they need to follow this game. A lot of SEC fans would rather gouge their eyes out than watch three-plus hours of Big Ten football, but they might have to here.

After Tuesday, when the latest CFP rankings were released, there was plenty of talk about whether undefeated Wisconsin, and its 61st-ranked schedule according to computer guru Jeff Sagarin, should be ahead of a Crimson Tide team whose only loss came by less than two touchdowns at Auburn. In fairness to the Badgers, Sagarin rates Alabama’s strength of schedule at No. 54 and ESPN rates it No. 47. And in fairness to the Tide, at least they scheduled a genuine powerhouse for their opener in September. There was no way for Alabama to know then that, by late November, it would own two wins over schools named FSU and the victory over Fresno State would carry more weight than the one over Florida State.

All of this talk is fine. It’s part of why college football is so much fun. But the hard, cold truth in Tuscaloosa is that the CFP committee did put Wisconsin ahead of Alabama this week and it definitely won’t change its mind if Wisconsin earns it best win of the season by knocking off Ohio State (8 p.m., Fox) to win the B1G title.

Now, if Ohio State were to win? I wrote about this a few days ago, but Alabama should use the Ohio State argument against Ohio State. I can’t justify two-loss Ohio State vaulting one-loss Alabama in the rankings no matter what happens in Indy for one simple reason: Iowa 55, Ohio State 24. That wasn’t forever ago, either; it was on Nov. 4. I am skeptical about the Buckeyes against the Badgers, but quarterback J.T. Barrett seems likely to play after having surgery this week and OSU defensive coordinator Greg Schiano isn’t as preoccupied as he might have been this week (right, Vols fans?), so it’s hard to say.

Credit: Joe Maiorana-USA TODAY Sports

Then again, there is a way for both Alabama and Ohio State to make an argument. Actually there is a way for an Alabama invitation to be pretty much assured. And it resides in Arlington, Texas.

Big 12 championship game

TCU coach Gary Patterson is one of the best defensive minds in America. He will have to use all of his knowledge to solve a puzzle that stumped his Horned Frogs on Nov. 11: How to stop Heisman Trophy favorite Baker Mayfield and the nation’s top-rated offense, the Oklahoma Sooners (12:30 p.m., Fox).

In the CFP's three years, no team has come from farther than No. 5 in the second-to-last rankings to make the Playoff.

And at No. 11 going in, TCU has pretty much no shot at getting into the Playoff even with a victory. Heck, in 2014 the Horned Frogs were ranked third in the CFP going into the season’s last day, waxed a bad Iowa State team to clinch a share of the Big 12 crown, and got bumped out of the semifinals by Big Ten champion Ohio State, which went on to win the national title. The resulting teeth-gnashing over that turn of events helped to convince the Big 12 to reinstate a conference championship game, so here we are.

A quick aside: An ESPN panel argued over the weekend that this was bad timing for the league because, if there were no title game, Oklahoma would be sitting pretty and awaiting a bid. I disagree. Oklahoma would still be playing somebody to end the regular season, which was what the Big 12 did the past several years while other conferences played their championship games. The Sooners probably would have played Oklahoma State, as it did in the finale the past several seasons, and a victory there probably would not have helped as much as beating a strong TCU team for a second time.

So this might be the easiest and best path of all for Alabama fans to root for: TCU wins, knocks out Oklahoma, and the Tide waltzes into the Playoff before the sun even goes down.

ACC championship game

This one has little impact on the SEC, except that if Miami wins in Charlotte (8 p.m., ABC), the Hurricanes might — might — be seeded lower than Alabama if the Tide get in. But the winner has to be in either way.

Credit: Jeff Blake-USA TODAY Sports

Clemson is the much more likely victor, and the Tigers are the biggest obstacle any SEC team faces heading into the Playoff. That’s not based on a statistical bent or an “eye test” observation. Clemson split the past two national title games — both epics — against Alabama and defeated Auburn each of the past two years in a home and home. Clemson is in every way an SEC program that just happens to play in the ACC.

This game will be on at the same time as the B1G game and, odds are, the Wisconsin-Ohio State game will capture more eyes in SEC country, especially in Alabama.