AUBURN, Ala. -- The College Football Playoff Selection Committee really has no excuse now.

It must consider Auburn, a two-loss team, for a spot to play for the national championship if it takes care of business next week. A two-loss team hasn't played for it all in 10 years (LSU, 2007) and maybe never before that. But it was bound to happen in this era of the four-team tournament.

Just not this way. Auburn's resume, which now looks so gleaming, includes an 11-sack debacle against Clemson in the second game of the season. It includes blowing a 20-point lead at LSU last month. It includes the head coach himself having his job security questioned even as the ball kicked off Saturday.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. We just won the SEC West," Gus Malzahn told reporters after the result made his presence around here a little more assured. "We're fixing to play for the SEC championship. I don't get into rumors."

After the No. 6 Tigers' magnificent 26-14 blasting of No. 1 Alabama, those rumors have coalesced into facts. Auburn will be playing for its second SEC title under Malzahn in five seasons. Win that and the Tigers almost assuredly enter the College Football Playoff for the first time.

This time with a previously unthinkable two losses, but in late November, that's almost forgotten. That's how convincingly Auburn won on Saturday in the biggest Iron Bowl in four years.

That historic night in 2013 included a 109-yard missed-field goal return. This game ended with Alabama questioning whether it could stay in the top four -- either Tuesday or in the final release of the CFP Rankings next Sunday.

Because that's the Tide's only hope now, to root for Auburn to beat Georgia next week in Atlanta and somehow become a second SEC team in the playoff.

"Now," Bama defensive lineman Daron Payne said, "we just have to leave it up to fate."

Alabama is not nearly the story, though. The story is Auburn. Who would you rank ahead of the Tigers right now? Not Georgia or Alabama, both No. 1 when they met and fell to Auburn. The Tigers' rivals have gone down by a combined 35 points.

Not Miami, which lost embarrassingly on Friday at Pittsburgh. Perhaps not even Oklahoma or Clemson. That's another discussion for another overwrought release of the rankings.

For now, Auburn proved once again it's better to lose early. That 14-6 loss to Clemson on Sept. 9 seems so foreign it could be from another season.

"We kept listening to people tell us how great we were," linebacker Tray Matthews said. "That's something we had to block out."

The 27-23 loss at LSU could have been devastating, especially after blowing a 20-0 lead.

"It's kind of like life, that's why I like football so much," halfback Chandler Cox. "Losses make a team better -- especially against Clemson, especially against LSU.

"I remember Coach Malzahn saying in the locker room after LSU, 'We can go win the SEC.'"

That made no sense, of course. To that point, the Tigers really had little identity. Tailback Kerryon Johnson had yet to become a Heisman Trophy candidate. The defense had yet to gel; it has given up more than 20 points only once since the LSU game.

On Saturday, it was like Auburn had been saving up a season's worth of frustration with a game's worth of excellence.

Offensive coordinator Chris Lindsey proved he's one of the game's best playcallers, helping roll up a season-high 408 yards on Alabama. Auburn held the ball for more than 36 minutes.

Jarrett Stidham is the quarterback Malzahn never had -- at least since Nick Marshall four years ago. Marshall led the Tigers to the last BCS Championship Game with his RPO (run-pass option) excellence. Stidham, the Baylor transfer, has less wiggle but just as much moxie. Lindsey and Malzahn decided to make a quarterback with a 1.6-yard career rushing average into a ground weapon. Stidham rushed for 51 yards, including a nifty quarterback draw for a touchdown that caught Alabama by surprise.

"We really didn't [expect him to run]," Alabama defensive back Minkah Fitzpatrick said. "This season he hasn't run the ball a whole a lot."

Johnson threw a touchdown pass out of the Wildcat that was part Tim Tebow, part genius from Lindsey, an analyst for Malzahn on that 2013 team. Left tackle Austin Golson, who has played all five offensive line positions this season, even lined up in the slot on a two-point play.

"I think he's a great play caller," Golson said. "He doesn't panic. He makes the right call, he sticks to the plan, and he rolls with it."

A year ago, Stidham watched the Iron Bowl on a couch at his girlfriend's house in Houston. At that time, he was in the process of transferring from scandal-ridden Baylor taking online classes at a Waco, Texas-area junior college.

"Turned around a year later, here I am talking to you guys after winning the Iron Bowl," Stidham said. "It's been a long process."

Alabama is judged against an almost impossible standard -- one of its own making. Last year's defense may have been the best of the Saban era. This year's is missing something, notably four linebackers who were injured at various times during the season. Three of those linebackers returned for varying amounts of playing time against Auburn but couldn't contain Stidham or his favorite target, slot receiver Ryan Davis (11 catches, 139 yards).

No matter what, this was Alabama's last statement to the CFP Selection Committee for the regular season. The committee that will consider a two-loss Auburn will also have to decide what to do with an 11-1 Tide that was No. 1 for most of the season.

"I certainly would like to see this team get the opportunity to [get to the playoff]," Saban said. "I think they deserve it."

That remains to be seen. The hottest team in the SEC has one more game to prove it is the best in the SEC. A rematch win over Georgia next week would make it three wins in four weeks over top-seven teams.

That point was hammered home as Auburn punter Aidan Marshall lined up to punt with seconds left before a delirious Jordan-Hare Stadium crowd. Malzahn called one timeout to keep from getting a delay of game penalty. He called a second, it seemed, just to let Alabama soak in the moment.

Auburn already decided the moment was theirs beyond Saturday night.

"We're a completely different team. That's fair to say," Malzahn shared. "… We beat two No. 1s. This time of year very few teams are playing [this well].

"We're playing our best football right now."