Talking season has returned. Full force.

Playoff scenarios are being tossed about more frequently than footballs in a Big 12 2-minute drill.

Here’s one I have been thinking about all week.

Everybody assumes Georgia will arrive in Atlanta for its date with Alabama with an 11-1 record, winner to the Playoff.

Here’s the rub: What happens if Auburn beats Georgia on Saturday night? And then what happens if a 2-loss Georgia team takes out an undefeated Alabama team in the SEC Championship Game?

Would it be possible that the SEC is left at home? I know it’s unthinkable, but is it possible?

Let’s assume Clemson runs the table, Notre Dame stays undefeated, Michigan is a 12-1 Big Ten champ, Oklahoma or West Virginia is a 1-loss Big 12 champion having just swept the other in consecutive weeks and the Pac-12 produces a 12-1 champion. That’s three Playoff locks and two other deserving arguments.

What would happen to the SEC?

For the record, I don’t necessarily believe either of the two aforementioned SEC scenarios will happen. Georgia is a 2-touchdown favorite at home against a one-dimensional Auburn offense. However, Auburn’s defense absolutely is capable of turning this into a 24-21 slugfest where a key turnover or poor call can produce an upset.

Similarly, I don’t think Georgia is built to handle what Alabama will bring to Atlanta. Last year’s Dawgs team was, largely because last year’s Alabama team was built in its tried-and-true, pound-and-pummel style.

This year’s Alabama team is built far more like last year’s Oklahoma team that hung 48 on Georgia. The key difference, of course, is there’s no way Alabama’s defense is giving up 54.

Caveats aside, Saturdays are for surprises. What happens if we get a couple more? Complete chaos.

No 2-loss team has made the Playoff. Auburn would have been the first last season had it finished its late-season run and knocked off Georgia again in the SEC title game. That would have been a Playoff-proof resume: 3 victories in the final month against top 5 teams.

Would a 2-loss SEC champion Georgia team feel as secure waking up on Selection Sunday? I don’t see how. We’ve always assumed the SEC champion is a lock to make the Playoff. The SEC champion has, in fact, made the Playoff all four years.

But a 2-loss Georgia SEC title team would test that, primarily because it wouldn’t have anything close to 2017 Auburn’s resume. Yes, it would have the ultimate trump card — a victory over No. 1 Alabama. But that’s about it. A 2-loss Georgia team would be 1-2 against the SEC West — at least one of those losses being a blowout — hoping upon hope that the Committee still considers Kentucky and Florida quality wins.

Essentially, the Committee would base its Georgia decision on whether one win — a ground-shaker, no doubt, against Alabama in the SEC title game — supersedes a 10-2 regular season propped up by a soft schedule.

Now, flip the conversation to Alabama, which is in the midst of the greatest offensive season in SEC history, directed by a part-time quarterback who just happens to be the Heisman Trophy favorite. How dominant has Alabama been? So dominant that a 29-0 dismantling of the No. 3 team in the country, at their place, somehow qualified as a disappointment.

But what kind of message would it send if Alabama lost its conference title game and then sneaked in as the No. 4 seed over three Power 5 conference champions, including the one it just lost to hours earlier? If that were to happen, why even have conference title games?

Worse, what kind of overreaction would it be if the Committee dropped Alabama to No. 5 or 6 after its first and only loss and kept the SEC at home?

That doomsday scenario is exactly what the rest of the country wants, by the way, the envy so strong it has poisoned their perspective on what qualifies as good football and what does not. It would not matter to them, at all, that the three combined losses in this scenario all were the product of SEC beasts eating their own.

Again, I don’t think it happens. I think Georgia handles Auburn and/or Alabama handles Georgia and the only drama will be whether the SEC sends one or both of its title-game participants to the Playoff.

But I know this: There’s no way the Committee wants any part of being the first group that tells the best football conference in the country that it isn’t good enough to participate in its Playoff.

If Auburn somehow stuns Georgia between the hedges, suddenly and dramatically, that possibility will be on the table.