How each conference gets left out of the College Football Playoff

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This time of year is about rainbows and roses, the hope and potential that your team just might have what it takes to be one of the selection committee's top four teams.

Not here. Not in this space.

This spot is reserved for doom and gloom, for the most catastrophic College Football Playoff possibilities. Of course, the most devastating scenario for each conference is for its champion to be ranked No. 5 and left out by a razor-thin margin. What could be worse?

Doomsday, of course ...

Heading into the season, here are the plausible scenarios in which each conference finds itself on the outside looking in when the final rankings are revealed.

ACC

Warning: This content is not suitable for North Carolina fans. In the biggest dagger the committee will throw, UNC goes undefeated but gets left out of the playoff because it has two FCS teams on its schedule. The Tar Heels would have knocked off Georgia and Florida State during the regular season and likely Clemson in the ACC title game. No matter. "They do have two FCS wins, and the committee is certainly aware," former committee chair Jeff Long said of the Tar Heels last year. Then again, UNC lost to South Carolina in 2015. Would the committee view an undefeated Tar Heels team more favorably? Maybe. Or they'd look at wins over JMU and The Citadel and slot UNC No. 5, sending the message that even impressive wins over ranked opponents aren't enough to compensate for two wins against FCS teams.

Big 12

TCU wins the league but gets left out again. (If only they had a conference championship game ...). Coach Gary Patterson hasn't forgotten the sting of watching his team drop from No. 3 to No. 6 in the final poll of the inaugural season of the playoff. The Horned Frogs' strength of schedule will again be called into question, but they have the Sooners at home on Oct. 1 and should be 4-0 going into that game. TCU returns eight starters to a defense that was depleted by injuries last year. If it can find a way to replace its leading rusher, receiver and QB, there's no reason the Frogs can't surprise the Big 12. They've won the league before -- just not as the "one true champion."