The College Football Playoff race just got clearer after Week 13. One team is notably not in the immediate conversation: No. 1 Alabama. 

The Crimson Tide lost to Auburn 26-14, which also cost them the SEC West title. Auburn will now face a rematch with Georgia from earlier this month in the SEC Championship Game. If Auburn wins, it will surely become the first two-loss team to make college football's final four. 

The playoff race was shaken up in other ways, too. No. 2 Miami lost a stunning game at Pitt, eliminating any margin for error the Hurricanes had before. Of course, the whole race could be shaken up again by this time next week. For now, it's time to digest everything that happened from a busy Week 13. From these storylines and more, we hash out the best and worst below with this week's version of Winners and Losers

Winners

Auburn quarterback Jarrett Stidham: Stidham needed to be on to beat Alabama, and boy was Stidham on. The first-year starter for the Tigers went 21-of-28 passing for 237 yards and scored a rushing touchdown with 51 yards to boot in the 26-14 win. Stidham was in a rhythm the entire game and took advantage of Gus Malzahn's creative play calls. And when Alabama's pass rush got to him -- and it did a lot -- Stidham was excellent at gaining much-needed positive yards on scrambles. There were lofty expectations on Stidham when he joined the program. He was hyped as the missing piece the offense needed to bring Auburn to a championship-level team. There were certainly ups and downs this season, but over the past month, there aren't many teams playing better than the Tigers. Stidham's addition did exactly what it was supposed to. 

Ohio State: Four weeks ago, I would have pegged you as crazy if you said Ohio State could be playoff bound. The Buckeyes had just been housed by Iowa -- a team that used up all its magic on that one game before getting beat by Wisconsin and Purdue -- and had two big losses on the season. And now look at 'em, right back in the race. Get a win over Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship Game -- and by no means am I making the assumption that will happen -- and it's a whole new discussion. There are no guarantees, of course. There are still legit questions about Ohio State's worthiness. (That Iowa loss ... woof.) There is competition, too. Alabama is still in the hunt despite losing to Auburn and would be right back in it if enough happens to break its way. I'm not ready to declare Ohio State a shoe-in, but it's a lot more alive than it was a few weeks ago. 

South Florida quarterback Quinton Flowers: Yeah, yeah. Flowers' team lost 49-42. That's hardly his fault, though. In a game that featured 1,186 yards of total offense, Flowers accounted for 605 by himself. That's about 93 percent of his team's output. Oh, and Flowers also accounted for five touchdowns. This was one of those rare performances in which you almost hate to see the player lose. Even UCF fans have to respect what they saw (even if it included a certain "dice rolling" motion in their direction). USF has been inconsistent all season, but the Bulls put everything together at the right time for their biggest game of the season. They just came up a little bit short, but Flowers might be the player of the week all the same. 

Stanford: There are big-picture problems with the Pac-12, which you can read below, but no Pac-12 had a bigger night than Stanford. The Cardinal not only beat Notre Dame 38-20, but punched their ticket to the Pac-12 Championship Game with Washington State's loss to Washington in the Apple Cup. Stanford's Heisman Trophy candidate, Bryce Love, continued to impress with 125 yards on one working ankle. But perhaps the biggest development is in the passing game. Since switching to K.J. Costello at quarterback earlier this month, the Cardinal have developed a more balanced offensive attack. Costello had four touchdown passes against the Irish. David Shaw can flat-out coach. 

Losers

Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh: If you were wondering how Michigan would painfully lose to Ohio State this time, it came in the form of backup Buckeyes quarterback Dwayne Haskins followed by a brutal game-sealing interception from Wolverines quarterback John O'Korn. The loss moves Harbaugh to 1-5 against his two biggest rivals, Michigan State and Ohio State, and Harbaugh is winless against the Buckeyes. He's also been abysmal in big-time games while in Ann Arbor. 

Harbaugh's a good coach. Critics be damned, it's not much of a debate. Winning eight games with a mostly new starting 22 is a good season, even if expectations are higher because you have blue-chip players across the board. And though we're moving further away from his rebuilding job at Stanford, it remains one of college football's great turnarounds in recent history. However, Harbaugh's not winning the right games, either. It seems unlikely that Michigan would ever fire its favorite son because of this, but it's an ever-growing blemish on his resume that certainly needs addressing. 

The Pac-12: The conference is effectively out of the playoff race. We can argue the merits of whether it should be given the national landscape, but that's a conversation for another time. The point here is that the Pac-12 has several two-loss teams at the top because it scheduled itself into those loses. The tweet below listing major loses on Friday nights tell the whole story. 

Three of those five games involved highly ranked Pac-12 teams playing on the road on a short week. USC, in fact, didn't have a bye until this week -- and that's the Pac-12's blue-blood program. I get in this age of lucrative television rights deals the need to receive constant exposure. Thursday and Friday night games are a good way to break away from the Saturday muck. But there's also a severe disadvantage from physical and preparational standpoints. That has to matter to the Pac-12, too. 

Florida State linebacker Matthew Thomas: What more perfectly embodies the disappointing seasons of Florida and Florida State? The third interception of the day from Gators quarterback Feleipe Franks? Or Thomas taking the pick back, with nothing but green in front of him, and failing to score because he downed himself by celebrating early?

Thomas is a bonafide stud, but -- and he left us no choice but to say this -- come on, man! 

UConn: There are losses in college football. There are painful losses. And then there's UConn's 22-21 loss to Cincinnati. The series of unfortunate events for the Huskies went as follows. At the end of a 93-yard drive with only seconds remaining, UConn faced a fourth and 10 from the Cincinnati 15-yard line. Quarterback David Pindell's pass was incomplete, but a pass interference gave the Huskies an extra untimed down, which they converted from the 2-yard line. However, an unsportsmanlike penalty after the score moved the ball back to the Cincinnati 18-yard line. Instead of going for two and the win, which was the original plan, UConn was forced to kick. The extra point was no good and Cincinnati held on for the one-point win. Brutal. 

Best of the rest

South Florida receiver Tyre McCants: Based on this week's selections, you'd think South Florida beat UCF. That wasn't the case, but McCants' 47-yard touchdown grab to start the game was an in-your-face reminder to never, ever skip leg day. Oh, and McCants had 227 yards on the day. Is that good? I think that's good. 

San Diego State running back Rashaad Penny: The Heisman contender eclipsed 2,000 yards rushing during the Aztecs' 35-10 win over New Mexico. Amazingly, it marks the second year in a row San Diego State has had a 2,000-yard runner. Last year, Donnel Pumphrey led the FBS with 2,133 yards. At this rate, Penny needs just 107 yards in San Diego State's bowl game to pass Pumphrey's total from last season.

Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin: If you believe reports from this past week, Sumlin will be fired after losing to LSU 45-21. You could hardly blame A&M decision-makers. A&M has wilted in Novembers regularly and hasn't posted an SEC record above .500 since 2012. Still, if this was it for Sumlin, it was a depressing way to go out. A&M fell behind 20-0, made a brief comeback, and then gave up 18 straight points to end the game.

UAB: How about some love for coach Bill Clark and the Blazers? In the first year resurrecting its program from the dead, UAB went 8-4 and were four points away from being 10-2. Clark should be the coach of the year selection for any major coaching award. 

Kansas State's Farmageddon ending: Let's just say we are super into walk-off touchdowns, meaning Kansas State's 20-19 win over Iowa State with time expiring goes down as one of the plays of the week. 

Houston defensive tackle Ed Oliver: Oliver is generally regarded as one of college football's top defenders -- and yet it feels like we don't talk enough about how dominant he is. His stat line in a 24-14 win over Navy -- 14 tackles, 3.5 TFLs and two sacks -- is of the video game variety set on easy mode.

Quick hits

  • This week marked the first time since 2012 that the No. 1 and No. 2 teams lost in the same weekend. 
  • From Ohio State sports information: Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett is the second player in FBS history to pass for 100 touchdowns and rush for 40. The only other is former Central Michigan quarterback Dan LeFevour.
  • UCF is the first FBS team to go from winless to undefeated in the regular season in two years. 
  • Virginia Tech has now won 14 straight games over Virginia. 
  • Oh, by the way, Lamar Jackson had 372 yards and two touchdowns in Louisville's 44-17 win over Kentucky. He also finished as the ACC's rushing leader in the regular season with 1,433 yards. Send him to New York, please. 
  • Oklahoma averaged a whopping 12 yards per play against West Virginia. Twelve. Per Play. 
  • TCU defensive end Mat Boesen had 14 total quarterback pressures, including six sacks, in a win over Baylor. 
  • Tennessee's loss to Vanderbilt drops the Vols to 4-8. That leaves Ohio State as the only major college football team to have never had an eight-loss season. 
  • A relief for bowl game purists: There are enough bowl eligible teams at six wins that no 5-7 teams will need to be selected. Finally, the integrity of the R&L Carriers Alaska Bowl presented by Costco will be preserved.