Auburn beat Alabama in another classic Iron Bowl on Saturday. It was the second time in three weeks that Auburn beat the No. 1 team in the country, and the win launched the Tigers into the SEC title game, where they'll once again face Georgia, one win away from a playoff berth.

Still, as entertaining a game as it was, and as critical as the result is to the college football landscape, there was one thought that I couldn't shake after it ended. The kind of notion that doesn't seem logical in any sense, but just might be a new reality in this sport.

The loss improved Alabama's chance of making the playoff too.

Alabama essentially stepped into the role of Ohio State last season -- a team with one loss and a very powerful brand; a team that now does not have to play another game, and instead can sit back and watch as others are forced to prove their worth one more time.

Should things go as those oracles in Las Vegas expect them to this week, USC, Auburn, Oklahoma, Clemson and Ohio State will win. If that happens, Auburn, Oklahoma and Clemson are sure things for one of the four playoff spots, leaving 11-2 Southern Cal and 11-2 Ohio State in the running for that final slot. As well as 11-1 Alabama, which has the weekend off.

Recent history suggests Alabama would get the final spot. Last year, Penn State was 11-2 and coming off a win over Wisconsin in the Big Ten title game, but even though the Nittany Lions had beaten Ohio State a month earlier, there was that three-point loss to Pitt as well as an ugly 39-point loss to Michigan the committee couldn't get past. So they chose Ohio State instead.

Now it would be Ohio State beating Wisconsin in Indianapolis, but with a 15-point loss to Oklahoma and an ugly 31-point loss to Iowa on its résumé. USC, like Alabama, has a lack of résumé wins, but unlike Alabama, it has a blowout loss (49-14 at Notre Dame) to go with its respectable defeat (30-27 at Washington State).

How confident are you that either of those teams would be selected ahead of an 11-1 Crimson Tide whose best win might be LSU, but a Tide whose only loss is Auburn. Oh, and it's also Alabama. Let's not pretend that doesn't carry weight.

This bothers me. Not because I don't think Alabama's a good team -- it is. Nor is it because I know that Alabama isn't one of the best four teams in the country -- it might be. It bothers me because, logically, it's hard for me to accept that a team that couldn't win its division, let alone conference, should get a chance to win the national championship.

It's one of the things that bothers me more than anything about the selection process for the College Football Playoff. The way things are set up, where the guidelines are flexible and the explanations for choices contradictory, there isn't any real requirement. The only requirement is that "the committee thinks you're good." The committee can put teams anywhere it wants to and then come up with reasons. A few weeks ago, we were told that Clemson was ranked higher than Miami because it had more wins against teams with winning records, as if a victory against 5-4 Georgia Tech was the most challenging thing any team could do. The next week, when Miami passed Clemson, we were told it was because Miami struggled against Virginia but overcame adversity on the field to show championship mettle.

Seriously, it wasn't that Miami was undefeated, it was that it struggled but still won.

It's because of these hazy guidelines that there is a good chance we'll see a team that couldn't win its division in the playoff for the second time in the four-year history of the event. This is not a trend that excites me, and it shouldn't excite anybody else, either.

If the regular season is supposed to matter, then let's make it matter. It's simple. You don't have to expand the playoff; you just have to mandate that to qualify for playoff selection, you need to win your conference. That's it. Then the committee decides which four of the five Power Five champions (or an undefeated Notre Dame) are the best of the available options.

Of course, none of this will happen. To make things this clear would mean that there's no need for a weekly television show announcing the latest rankings, and that would mean the majority of the discussion that drives the sport over its final two months would disappear. The playoff isn't about determining the best teams in college football. It's about creating as much consumer interest in the product as possible.

Hiring Fiasco of the Week

I'm not going to get too deep into what happened at Tennessee on Sunday, because, honestly, I'm not smart enough to truly get to the core of it. It was reported that Greg Schiano would be hired, and fans revolted as we've never seen before to a coaching hire. Enough so that Tennessee backed out of a possible deal with Schiano because it was clear the situation was toxic.

I saw plenty of reactions to colleagues who pinned the backlash on nothing more than a fan base upset that its school didn't hire Jon Gruden. I found this to be insulting because while there were factions of the Tennessee fanbase that believed Gruden was an actual possibility (he wasn't), most fans knew better. Plus, this isn't the first time Tennessee fans have had delusions about Gruden. The last time the school had an opening, fans wanted Gruden, but when Butch Jones was hired, we didn't see the same kind of reaction we saw to Schiano.

At the root of the reaction, for a lot of fans, was Schiano's history at Penn State, and whether he was a witness to anything that took place there involving Jerry Sandusky. There was testimony from former Penn State assistant Mike McQueary that alleges he was, but that statement was never investigated further because it was hearsay -- a case of "this person told me that this person did this." Schiano has publicly denied any knowledge of anything having to do with Sandusky during his time at Penn State. Whether he did only Schiano knows, but clearly, the Tennessee fan base has already made its decision.

I'm not going to get into any of that because, frankly, the Penn State scandal is not something I'm eager to litigate again anytime soon.

What I find truly shocking about all of this is not the reaction. It's the lack of foresight shown by Tennessee athletic director John Currie. 

It was in July of 2016 that Tennessee settled a lawsuit after eight plaintiffs alleged that Tennessee "created an environment within the athletics department, especially the football program, that led to sexual assaults and then employed a disciplinary hearing process biased in favor of athletes." The school paid $2.48 million to make that go away.

So for Currie to not even take into consideration Schiano's possible ties to what happened at Penn State while considering him as a replacement for a coach with his own sexual assault scandal at Tennessee strikes me as utterly tone deaf. You might not have liked the way Tennessee fans reacted to the Schiano news, but pardon me if I'm not going to feel sorry for John Currie having to deal with the fallout he could have so easily avoided.

Troll of the Week

All right, let's try to have some fun in this column, shall we? With so many upsets and so much hatred that comes with rivalry week, it was hard to pick just one winner with so many options, so I'm going with a three-way tie.

First we'll start with Wisconsin, which posted this following a 31-0 victory over Minnesota and P.J. "Row The Boat" Fleck.

Next, we head to Lamar Jackson's Snapchat, where he posted this following Louisville's 44-17 victory over rival Kentucky at Kroger Field.

Finally, we have this tweet from Pitt after it handed Miami its first loss of the season all the way back on Friday (honestly it feels like a month ago, this weekend was crazy).

While it's technically a tie between the three, I lean a little toward Pitt just because the Panthers' victory led to this fantastic gif's creation.

The internet is magical.

Random Ranking of the Week

There's a new radio station in Chicago -- where I live -- that plays nothing but '90s hip-hop and R&B, and it's terrific. I've been listening to it a lot, so this week I'm ranking the greatest '90s rappers/rap groups.

1. The Notorious B.I.G.
2. Wu-Tang Clan
3. Outkast
4. Ice Cube
5. Jay-Z

Yes, I know I left Tupac off the list. All rankings are final!

Struggle of the Week

I would watch a live feed of Auburn fans struggling to climb over bushes for at least 45 minutes before losing interest.

Fan Reaction of the Week

This young woman is everybody who watched UCF and South Florida on Friday night. The game was a pure sugar rush.

Stat of the Week

Well, it wasn't a good season, Tennessee, but at least it was a historic one.

How did Vanderbilt running back Ralph Webb feel about it?

God, I love rivalry week.

Chris Petersen's AP Voter of the Week

I have featured Jonny Miller in this spot more often than any other Association Press voter, and while I initially planned on not including it this week, when I saw Jonny's ballot, I had to change plans.

This week Miller has Washington State at No. 12 on his ballot (ahead of Miami, mind you) and has Washington at No. 19.

It looks like somebody sent their ballot in early instead of staying up late to watch the game. Chris Petersen will not be pleased.

College Football Playoff Projection of the Week

This is what I expect to see \Tuesday night.

1. Clemson
2. Oklahoma
3. Auburn
4. Wisconsin

Until the next Monday After!