TCU vs. Alabama: Who Deserves the Last College Football Playoff Spot?

Thankfully, the season doesn't end today. Bodies of work aren't complete. And if Week 11 showed us anything, it's that college football is too much fun for it to end so soon. 

Still, that hasn't stopped an ever-growing debate about which teams are more worthy of a playoff spot. With Auburn's loss to Texas A&M, Alabama, Oregon and TCU assume the jockeying for the final two spots in the latest playoff rankings. 

Oregon seems like a sure thing to fill one of those spots after a convincing 51-27 win at Utah. The Ducks now have one of the best nonconference wins in the country over Michigan State and back-to-back blowout victories over the best two defenses in the Pac-12 (Utah and Stanford). 

Which means, chances are, the final spot comes down to either Alabama or TCU. There's simply no way Florida State and Mississippi State aren't No. 1 and No. 2, no matter how you rank them. For what it's worth, the Tide and Frogs came in at No. 5 and No. 6, respectively, in the playoff poll a week ago. 

Which one is more deserving? If the season ended today—again, it doesn't—the edge would have to go to TCU. 

To be clear, it's close. Let's start by looking at the resumes side-by-side in the table below: 

Team	Strength of Schedule (Sagarin)	Wins vs. Current AP Top 25 Teams	Who Beat Them?
Team 1	No. 3	1 (No. 13)	No. 10
Team 2	No. 23	1 (No. 20)	No. 6

Can you guess which team is which without looking?

Alabama is Team 1 and TCU is Team 2. The Tide clearly have a strength-of-schedule advantage based on Sagarin rankings, but both have just one victory over a current Associated Press Top 25 team. TCU has victories over former Top 25 teams West Virginia and Oklahoma; Alabama also beat the Mountaineers—by 10 in Week 1 of the season—and it beat Texas A&M 59-0 when the Aggies were ranked, probably wrongly so.

TCU's one loss came on a last-second field goal after blowing a big lead to Baylor, currently ranked No. 6 in the AP poll. Alabama's lone defeat came at the hands of No. 10 Ole Miss, which has since dropped a pair of close games to LSU and Auburn. 

Either way, there's no doubt that each team's best win came this past weekend. TCU leveled Kansas State 41-20, while Alabama needed overtime to beat LSU 20-13. 

By Tide coach Nick Saban's own admission, it was not his team's best effort. 

B/R colleague Barrett Sallee thinks that, while thrilling, beating LSU in Death Valley isn't a playoff invitation for Alabama. Not by itself, that is. He's not the only one. 

TCU has looked better to this point. Going forward, though, things could change to the point where we're not even having this discussion. Alabama still has to play No. 1 Mississippi State and Auburn, and it gets both at home. Whether you think the Tide looked impressive or not in the win over LSU, the opportunity is there for Alabama to put this conversation to bed once and for all. 

Conversely, TCU could be in the middle of a potentially fascinating debate at year's end if the Frogs and Baylor win out. The Bears hold the head-to-head win over the Frogs, but to date, voters have been more favorable to TCU. If both finish as co-champions, playoff head honcho Bill Hancock says that each team will be viewed, in essence, as the Big 12 champ. 

There's a lot that still needs to be figured out, which is why it's a good thing we still have another month to sort through it all. If Alabama and TCU keep winning, though, they'll be in good position at year's end—better position than some others, in all likelihood. 

Ben Kercheval is a lead writer for college football.