Alabama wasn’t just the preseason favorite. It was the runaway leader.

It received 54 of a possible 63 first-place votes in the Associated Press poll. It had the two best players in the country, reigning Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young and defensive dynamo Will Anderson Jr., added impact transfers like Jahmyr Gibbs of Georgia Tech and Eli Ricks of LSU, and had Nick Saban, the best coach in the sport’s history, patrolling the sideline. The College Football Playoff was the baseline for this team. The regular season was supposed to be a series of scrimmages.

Instead, this loaded group’s season ended Saturday night in Death Valley on a gutsy, two-point conversion in overtime, LSU taking over the lead of the SEC West in dramatic fashion. Alabama won’t even sniff the playoff this year, with two conference losses in the same season for just the second time since 2011.

This is, without question, the most disappointing season of Nick Saban’s dominance in Tuscaloosa, the earliest his team has been eliminated from the playoff since the system began eight years ago. It is unequivocally the low point of his dynastic tenure at Alabama. It raises questions if he has lost his fastball at the age of 71, Saban admitting Saturday night this was on him.

“I’m responsible for all this stuff,” he said.

Really, Alabama is fortunate it only has two losses. It was outplayed by mediocre Texas, sans starting quarterback Quinn Ewers, in a narrow road win. It nearly lost at home to three-win Texas A&M. That high-scoring loss at Tennessee doesn’t look as good after the Volunteers were manhandled by Georgia on Saturday. Had Alabama escaped LSU, and somehow run the table to earn a trip to the SEC title game, it would’ve only been setting itself up to get destroyed by the far better and deeper Bulldogs.

Quality offenses have exposed the defense. The offense has lacked a big-play receiver all year, asking Young to do everything. Alabama has been far too mistake-prone all season, a team that commits stupid penalties at the wrong times. There were nine infractions for 92 yards on Saturday and a whopping 17 for 130 yards in the loss at Tennessee.

The result is this underwhelming season that could result in a third-place finish in the SEC West if Alabama can’t win at Ole Miss on Saturday. Imagine that sentence in August or early September? Then again, this season hasn’t played out how anyone, even the most die-hard Alabama haters, could have expected.

Toothless Tigers

For the first year in the history of the playoff, Clemson and Alabama won’t be in it. The Tigers’ only path was by going undefeated, and that ended in a humiliating 28-0 loss at average Notre Dame. Right now, there are two safe bets to reach the last four: Georgia and the Michigan/Ohio State winner.

Then it gets really interesting. If TCU finishes undefeated it will get in. But that’s no lock considering the Horned Frogs may be road underdogs the next two weeks. Oregon is now firmly in play if it wins out, particularly with a Pac-12 championship game win over USC. Tennessee has only one loss, albeit an ugly one at Georgia on Saturday, but would the committee take a team that failed to win its division over a one-loss Big 12 or Pac-12 champion?

The wild card is LSU, which has two losses to Florida State and Tennessee. But if the Tigers, now the favorite to win the SEC West, get past Georgia in the conference title game, they would have an argument in that scenario as the first-ever two-loss team to reach the playoff.

Bulldogs’ bite

The best team doesn’t always win. Upsets happen. Injuries can change outcomes. But Georgia on its “A” game is better than everyone else, and maybe by a significant margin. It destroyed Oregon, who hasn’t lost since. The 27-13 margin on Saturday against previously undefeated Tennessee didn’t accurately tell the story of this one-sided contest. The Bulldogs got bored midway through the season, unimpressive in wins over Kent State and Missouri, their two closest games of the season. They have responded by hammering Auburn, Vanderbilt, Florida, and Tennessee by a combined 166-43.