Can Notre Dame edge out SEC team?

— -- The glare of the Golden Dome can be blinding, even from SEC locales.

So we'll get this out there from the top: I'm not blinded, just realistic.

Stanford bounced back and finished strong. Notre Dame beat the Cardinal 17-14 earlier this month, but the Cardinal have now lost three games.

There's also the chance the SEC West could beat up on itself the rest of the way and that everybody in that division could finish with two losses. At this point, we know that all but one SEC team will have at least one loss coming out of the conference championship game.

When you start stacking up quality wins, assuming Notre Dame can take care of its business the rest of the way, that's when it could really get interesting.

But consider this potential scenario: The committee's next-to-last ranking will come out the Tuesday before the SEC championship game (Dec. 2). By then, Notre Dame would have played its final game, as would have a one-loss SEC team that didn't make it into the SEC championship game.

You'd have to think if Notre Dame were No. 4 in those next-to-last rankings and the SEC team were No. 5 (or vice versa) that there wouldn't be anything on conference championship Saturday that would reverse the order when the final rankings come out that next Tuesday.

A lot to digest, for sure. But it makes for fascinating debate, and with actual humans making the call, at least we won't have to hear about how the system got it wrong and is biased, like fans said in the BCS days.

If you believe that, I have four tickets on the 50-yard line to the Iron Bowl and Egg Bowl that I'll sell you for half price.