Alabama beat Georgia by more than the score shows...

Alabama outscored Georgia 41-14 after being down 10-0

I am a firm believer that it makes no sense to even schedule conference championship games if you are not actually eliminating anyone from going to the playoffs. Every year at least one of the five power conferences will be left out of the playoffs. Hard to justify leaving two out in order to allow for multiple teams from the same conference.  You don't put two teams from the NFC or AFC into the Superbowl just because you believe that the second best team in the conference is better than the other teams in the other conference. You give everyone a chance at the crown. 

This year it appears that undefeated Cincinnati will make the playoffs leaving at least two of the power five out of the mix. To be honest, there is a good argument that neither the ACC or PAC-10 deserve a team in the playoffs. But if you give the SEC two teams in the playoffs that means that only one other power conference team can make the playoffs. If Iowa beats Michigan in the Big Ten Championship that puts 11-1 Independent Notre Dame into the mix. You could end up with four power five conference champions left out of the playoffs.

Now the argument is going to be... four best teams. But with all due respect, I have no interest in watching Alabama play Georgia again a few weeks from now under any circumstance. I'd say that even if I believed that they were the best two teams (which I am not sure they are). That being said, to the degree that Alabama beat Georgia today, I find it hard to imagine a different outcome if they played again. Alabama seems to have Georgia's number here folks.  Sometimes matchups matter and perhaps another team would stand a better chance.  

Lastly, you can argue that Georgia just had their chance to stake claim to being college football's best team. They failed in a fairly substantial manner in doing so. Why do they deserve a "second" chance to prove their muster when another college team... say 11-1 Notre Dame or even Baylor who just beat both undefeated Oklahoma and one loss Oklahoma State down the stretch... will not even get one chance?