No. 1 Oregon and No. 2 Texas are one win away from locking up the top two seeds in the College Football Playoff after the release of the penultimate CFP Rankings on Tuesday. SMU projects as the 3-seed ACC champion,

Essentially the only path that guarantees a playoff berth for Alabama is an SMU win, as College Football Playoff selection committee chair Warde Manuel explained: “Those who are not playing [in conference championship games], we will not adjust those teams.” Manuel told ESPN.

The CFP field will be announced during an ESPN selection show on Sunday, Dec. 8. The show begins at 12 p.m. ET. The "College Football Playoff Selection Show" will air on ESPN. It will also be available to stream on ESPN.com and the ESPN app.