The biggest college football game of the weekend turned out to be a letdown if only because No. 1 Alabama is so dominant that even No. 3 LSU’s defense and a road game in Baton Rouge couldn’t slow down the Crimson Tide.

Alabama won 29-0, holding LSU to 196 total yards of offense and just 12 rushing yards on 25 attempts.

Despite briefly leaving the game on the opening drive and again late in the third quarter due to separate injuries, Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa treated the Tigers’ defense like any other opponent he’s faced this year.

He was 25-of-42 for 295 yards and three total touchdowns.

Here’s how Alabama’s shutout win over LSU affects the College Football Playoff picture.

If there were any (unwarranted) questions about Alabama based on its schedule prior to its trip to Baton Rouge, those have been definitively answered and shut down effective immediately. With its latest win, the Crimson Tide confirmed its No. 1 ranking that the playoff selection committee awarded it on Tuesday and it clinched the SEC West in the process.

If Alabama can take care of business at home against Mississippi State, The Citadel and Auburn, it might be able to make the playoff regardless of the result of the SEC Championship, barring a blowout loss to Georgia. The playoff committee has proven it’s willing to put two teams from the same conference in the playoff, so a 12-1 Alabama team could still make the four-team field even if it had a competitive loss to the Bulldogs.

We don’t need to tell you that Alabama would make the playoff and almost assuredly earn the No. 1 seed if it goes 13-0.

Had LSU not lost at Florida in Week 6, the Tigers could have contended for a playoff spot in the same manner that Alabama did last year as a one-loss SEC team that was kept out of the conference championship game. However, LSU now has two losses and that all but ends its playoff hopes. The same can be said for Kentucky, which suffered its second loss of the season and was eliminated from SEC Championship contention by Georgia on Saturday.

That leaves Georgia as the only other realistic playoff contender in the SEC in addition to the top-ranked Tide. After its loss at LSU, Georgia can control its own destiny but it has to win out to guarantee a playoff spot.

Even if the Bulldogs lost to the Crimson Tide in overtime in the SEC Championship like they in last season’s national championship game, their national championship hopes would require the committee to put a two-loss, conference championship runner-up into the playoff — something for which there’s no precedent so far in the playoff era.

Notre Dame and Michigan are likely the biggest immediate beneficiaries of LSU’s loss as each school should move up one spot to No. 3 and No. 4, respectively, in the College Football Playoff rankings. There’s still a pack of one-loss schools — Georgia, Oklahoma, Washington State, Ohio State and West Virginia — in close pursuit, several of which will play each other before the final CFP rankings are announced.

Michigan plays at Ohio State and Oklahoma travels to West Virginia, with the possibility of a rematch in the Big 12 Championship.

The playoff contenders from outside the SEC should hope for Alabama to win in blowout fashion in the SEC Championship to prevent two schools from the same conference from earning a spot in the playoff. A win for the Bulldogs could leave the door wide open for Alabama and Georgia to make the playoff for the second year in a row.