That’s it. The conference championships are in the books and the CFP selection committee has all the data points they can receive.

Whew. There’s no envy here for the job at hand.

Four slots.

Five truly deserving teams.

This is a pickle this rotating committee of 12 members have never really faced since adopting this four-team format.

The PAC-12 deciding to rejoin the realm of the relevant in its final season created this predicament.

But here’s what should happen.

1. Michigan

2. Washington

3. Texas

4. Alabama

Sorry, Florida State.

If we’re throwing precedents out the window, you’re the odd man out.

If the ACC championship was the stage to show the eyeballs you haven’t missed a beat without injured QB Jordan Travis, a 16-6 win over Louisville wasn’t it.

Head to head with any of the other contenders and the Seminoles, as they stand now, aren’t in the same league. They simply don’t have the offense to keep pace.

Put them in and you get another Michigan State from 2015 or Ohio State in 2017. Go back to Year 1 of the playoff and an undefeated but flawed FSU got boat raced 59-20 by Oregon in the Rose Bowl semifinal.

This is said with no disrespect intended since in any other season, nobody would bat an eye.

But when you have a one-loss Alabama beating unquestioned No. 1 Georgia effectively on the road, the circumstances complicate.

Where FSU limped to the finish line, Alabama sprinted through the Bulldog brick wall. It ended a 29-game winning streak that’s barely been tested since the Tide handed UGA its last loss in the same conference title game.

Alabama’s played one of the hardest schedules in the nation. ESPN’s FPI has the Tide schedule ranked No. 5. FSU is 58th. TeamRankings has Alabama at No. 2 and FSU at 16.

The numbers are the numbers and one can find any set to fit an argument.

The eyeballs don’t lie and the difference between Alabama and FSU on Saturday was stark. The Seminoles without a doubt have one of the nation’s top defense. They don’t have an offense, not as it stands today, that can hang with Alabama or the other playoff teams.

The Jordan Travis injury just changed the math

And from this perspective, it doesn’t add up to Florida State’s closing argument matching Alabama’s.

No SEC champion has come close to being left out in the first eight years of the four-team playoff. If the ACC had any kind of elite depth, my argument falls apart. But they don’t.

Florida State’s best win came against the third-place finisher in the SEC West.

Alabama controlled the game against the two-time defending national champs who were barely tested all season.

It all adds up to a bizarre season and a difficult decision.

But Alabama is the right answer if you can only pick one. Of the two, they’re the only who can legitimately compete for a national title, which is the point after all.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.