Leaving your fate in the hands of the College Football Playoff committee - a group that has proven to utilize inconsistent metrics when comparing teams - would be a foolish endeavor.
Alabama is aiming to ensure the decision is out of the committee's hands. A Crimson Tide win over Georgia in Saturday's SEC Championship Game would clinch an automatic berth into the College Football Playoff and provide an anxiety-free Sunday for the program and its fans.
Last year, Alabama left its fate up to the committee and ended up being the first team left out of the playoff. There exist scenarios where that could happen again if Kalen DeBoer's team doesn't take care of business in Atlanta.
"We know that we don’t want to put it in no one else’s hands," Deontae Lawson told reporters on Monday. "Just control what we can control, and that’s doing our best to win the game. Leave nothing up for chance.”
Alabama aiming not to leave its fate up to the selection committee
We'll get a better idea of where Alabama stacks up in the playoff hierarchy on Tuesday night when the penultimate CFP rankings are released. If the Crimson Tide stays at No. 10, then there exists a very real nightmare scenario that a loss to Georgia could knock Alabama out of the playoff entirely.
That scenario revolves around the Big 12 getting a second bid with BYU upsetting Texas Tech in their conference championship game. The Red Raiders feel like a lock heading into the championship weekend, and wouldn't drop below the Crimson Tide with theoretical losses by both teams, considering they will come into the weekend several spots ahead.
The cleanest, least-anxious path is for Alabama to do what it typically does against Georgia: win.
Alabama beat Georgia once already this season. Kirby Smart is just 1-7 against the Crimson Tide as the Bulldogs' head coach, and Kalen DeBoer has now won both head-to-head meetings against Smart.
But what happened then has no bearing on what will happen this Saturday. Georgia is one of the best teams in the country, and it will take the best game Alabama has played in well over a month to leave Atlanta victorious.
Georgia has already clinched its bid to the playoff, but it will be highly motivated this weekend, too. Winning the SEC still means something, and the Bulldogs are undoubtedly sick of the narrative that they cannot beat the Crimson Tide.
Alabama will get Georgia's best shot. It will take a championship-level effort from the Tide to get the job done.