No. 14 Notre Dame is never going to live down this month’s loss to Northern Illinois, especially with the Huskies dropping two of three since the upset in South Bend. But the College Football Playoff math still favors the Fighting Irish: win out and you’re (very likely) in the 12-team field.

The No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide toppled the No. 2 Georgia Bulldogs in an epic SEC game ]Saturday night. It gives Alabama a case to move past Texas and Ohio State to No. 1.

And in another quirk of the college football world we’re now living in, that team happens to be No. 1 Texas, which plays its first conference game as an SEC program Saturday against Mississippi State.