College Football Playoff scenarios: How this weekend's conference title games will define final four

Six teams are in striking distance of the College Football Playoff entering the final weekend of the regular season.

Five of those teams will play Saturday, in championship games that will decide the SEC, Big 12, Big Ten and American. The one outlier is Notre Dame, which is done for the regular season at 11-1 and now waits to see if chaos opens a door to the national semifinals.

Reaching this point may go down as the top achievement of coach Brian Kelly's tenure, which ended this week in stunning fashion with his decision to leave for LSU. His otherwise commendable stretch will be stained by this abrupt departure.

Kelly's tenure will also be defined by an inability to bring a national championship back to South Bend. That's not for lack of effort. Notre Dame has reached the playoff in two of the past three seasons, losing both times in the semifinals.