Alabama's latest bowl projections, playoff and championship odds

With six weeks remaining in the college football regular season, Alabama is generally projected to be a New Year's Six bowl team that does not qualify for the College Football Playoff.

The latest bowl projections published Sunday by CBS Sports' Jerry Palm predict Alabama will face Penn State in the Peach Bowl on Dec. 30. Another option for Alabama would be the Cotton Bowl on Dec. 29; that is where 247 Sports' Brad Crawford projects Alabama to meet Oklahoma. ESPN's analysts Mark Schlabach and Kyle Bonagura are split on whether Alabama will meet Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl or the Peach Bowl.

Alabama statistically faces an uphill battle to make the College Football Playoff and earn a spot in the Sugar Bowl or Rose Bowl. ESPN's Football Power Index gives Alabama a 25.6 percent chance of qualifying for the playoff, with eight schools having better chances. Georgia has a 30.4 chance to make the playoff by ESPN's metrics, which is only the seventh-highest.

The idea of a playoff without an SEC participant is not crazy at the moment. There are undefeated teams atop the Big 12 (Oklahoma), ACC (Florida State), Pac-12 (Washington) and Big Ten (Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State). Even if Alabama can run the table and knock off Georgia in the SEC championship game, the one-loss Tide might not stack up favorably if there are undefeated teams in the other four major conferences. However, that will likely change; there has never been a playoff comprising four unbeaten teams.

Alabama has considerably improved its national championship odds since reaching a low point after a September loss to Texas and close win over South Florida. At the time, Alabama was +5000 on BetMGM to win the national title, the 13th-shortest odds in the country. Now, Alabama is +1800 to win the national championship, with only seven schools having better odds.