Breaking down College Football Playoff, conference races entering Week 13

This has turned into just about the best possible season for a 12-team College Football Playoff to make its debut.

There's been no talk of anyone sitting players in the coming weeks, one of the doom scenarios expansion skeptics brought up. The five to seven best teams in the country are far closer to each other than usual in terms of quality, meaning your draw once you reach the playoff is going to mean an absolute ton. The Group of 5 has produced a team good enough to nearly beat the No. 1 team in the country and, according to the current CFP rankings, maybe even steal a first-round bye. And there's a solid chance that a very good two-loss SEC team gets left out, meaning that any fears of lowering the bar too far or allowing mediocre teams into the field are quickly being allayed.

Granted, we're still dealing with a maddening CFP committee that makes maddeningly inconsistent decisions from week to week. And granted, leaving out a very good SEC team likely will result in SEC commissioner Greg Sankey going scorched earth and demanding playoff expansion and many auto-bids for his conference, which might not be great. Then again, he was almost certainly going to do that this offseason anyway, so what does it matter?

We've got two Saturdays left to determine who will reach the nine conference championship games -- somehow, a few title races are getting blurrier, not clearer at the moment -- and then a third Saturday to figure out the CFP's 12-team field. Let's walk through all the conference title odds, what's at stake in the coming week and, for the chaos seekers among us, where things are most likely to go off the rails for the top teams.