Alabama has a clear path to the College Football Playoff, ESPN and SEC Network analyst Matt Stinchcomb said Wednesday.

Stinchcomb, also a former Georgia and NFL offensive lineman, appeared Wednesday along with ESPN colleagues Roman Harper and Taylor Zarzour at the “Passion for Prichard” fundraiser for Prichard Prep Academy at Mobile’s GulfQuest Museum. He said that although the Crimson Tide checked it at No. 8 in the initial College Football Playoff rankings, there is a clear path to the Top 4 assuming Nick Saban’s team wins out.

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“They do have a path, there’s no question,” Stinchcomb said. “I think that when Oklahoma kind of self-selected with their loss (to Kansas), you’re looking at a guarantee of a one-loss Big 12 champion, right? So it limits the number of potential undefeateds coming out of the major conferences. You’ve got (Florida State), you’ve got a couple of candidates in the Big Ten, maybe one out of the Pac-12. So I do think that the path makes a lot more sense.

“I don’t know that you get as much bounce out of the Big 12 in that championship game as you would if you’re Alabama facing, let’s say, an undefeated Georgia, which would be the best possible scenario for them, from an Alabama perspective. So yeah, the path is very real. I think it’s very viable and given the way that the Southeastern Conference has performed in playoffs, I think you’re doing the college football fan a disservice if you don’t have a representative of this conference in there.”

Despite being the two-time defending national champions and in the midst of a 25-game winning streak, Stinchcomb’s alma mater was No. 2 rather than No. 1. Along with No. 3 Michigan, the Bulldogs are no doubt being penalized for playing a soft schedule to this point, he said.

However, Georgia still has games remaining against ranked Missouri, Ole Miss and Tennessee teams in the regular season and almost certainly a Top 10 SEC West representative if it gets to the conference championship game. So “strength of schedule” won’t be a mark against the Bulldogs for much longer.

“I do have a hard time figuring out what the committee values because you think about, if it’s strength of schedule, then it makes sense to have Ohio State at 1,” Stinchcomb said. “But then if that’s also the case, then I don’t know how you could have Georgia at 2 or Michigan at 3 because their strength of schedule was terrible, right? I think George is at 100 (nationally) and Michigan’s at 111. But we also know that Ohio State and Michigan will be playing one another and Georgia’s strength of schedule is about to ramp up significantly with Missouri. Georgia will play three ranked teams that are currently in the top 17 in the college football rankings.”

Georgia also might be getting some credit for playing without tight end Brock Bowers, who was injured three weeks ago vs. Vanderbilt and is out indefinitely. Texas, which is ranked No. 7, has also been without quarterback Quinn Ewers of late.

“Maybe the committee is saying, ‘look good job you played well without your best player,” Stinchcomb said. “And it seems like they valued that given where they put Texas. Texas is ranked above Oklahoma, a team that beat them not that long ago. So it is not always easy to reconcile the committee’s logic, but, the good news is it doesn’t really matter until the end of the season anyway. So it’s just a kick in the pants up until then.”

Alabama can take a major step toward perhaps facing Georgia in the SEC championship with a victory on Saturday night vs. LSU in Tuscaloosa. The Tigers are ranked No. 1 nationally in several offensive categories, but the Crimson Tide offers a different kind of challenge than LSU has faced this season, Stinchcomb said.

It’s also likely Alabama hasn’t faced an opposing quarterback like Daniels this season, he said.

“This will far and away be the best defense that LSU has seen this season,” Stinchcomb said. “I do think that this is a defense that can get stops and it’s an (Alabama) offense that has shown that it can be explosive and it can climb out of holes. So that’s all important.

“The question (for Alabama) will be is, can you maintain possessions and not only like sustain drives, but just don’t give your opponent extra possessions with turnovers because they are dangerous. Jayden Daniels, when you look at this offense, I don’t know that there’s a more dangerous ball carrier runner in this conference than the quarterback for LSU. And I can’t think of another season where I would say that. There have been some great runners in this conference but Jayden Daniels, I think, is maybe the most dangerous.”