Editor’s note: This article was originally published by USA TODAY Sports and has been republished in its entirety below.
Those who follow college football objectively, which is to say without an allegiance to a particular school, have had a pretty good idea who the four teams most deserving of playoff selection are for some time. That includes the members of the committee, who’ve had the same quartet at the top from the first rankings more than three weeks ago.
Now that championship weekend is here, the results will either confirm these preconceived notions, allowing for one of the least suspenseful reveals on Sunday in the brief history of the format, or blow them up completely. In the words of Billy Joel, “there ain’t no in betweens.”
The first game on this list will go a long way toward determining if we’ll have order or chaos. The rest are far less likely to shake up the bottle but bear watching nonetheless. Here are the five impact games.