This time each year, families gather by fireside and candlelight, by holiday lights and the warm glow of the television, to ponder a timeless question: What would your familiar, beloved world be like if you weren’t a part of it?

George Bailey and “It’s a Wonderful Life,” right? Nah. We’re talking about the University of Alabama and the College Football Playoff.

For just the third time in its 11 incarnations, the playoff will kick off without Alabama in the bracket. And much like Bedford Falls in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” the CFP is marching right along on its merry way without the Tide.

But where George Bailey’s hometown descended into immoral, lawless anarchy and nobody seemed particularly happy except the guy with all the money, the Tide-less CFP is a place of joy and celebration, a world where Arizona State and Indiana and Clemson — freaking three-loss Clemson! — is enjoying the party while Alabama shivers outside in the cold, unseen. (The guys with all the money are still happy. Some things never change.)

It’s a sobering thing, seeing the world move on without you, and Alabama, relegated to — shocker! — the ReliaQuest Bowl, is reacting about as well as you’d expect — with murderous fury and hurt feelings. The Tide are going scorched-earth on everyone that’s not the SEC, starting with athletic director Greg Byrne’s Sunday statement on X:

“Disappointed with the outcome and felt we were one of the 12 best teams in the country. We had an extremely challenging schedule and recognize there were two games in particular that we did not perform as well as we should have,” Byrne wrote. “We have said that we would need to see how strength of schedule would be evaluated by the CFP. With this outcome, we will need to asses [sic] how many P4 non-conference games make sense in the future to put us in the best position to participate in the CFP. That is not good for college football.”

Here’s the thing: Byrne isn’t wrong to question whether strength of schedule even entered into the CFP selection committee’s thinking, and from there, to raise the issue of a cupcake-only, out-of-conference schedule. A college football regular season with nothing but in-conference heavyweight matchups would be a dull thing indeed, and the CFP selection committee will need to address that going forward.

Yes, Alabama did beat the SEC champion and two other ranked teams, with a strength of schedule among the toughest in the country. The Tide posted nine wins over a meat-grinder of a schedule, and that’s saying something.

On the other hand, Alabama lost three games in a season. That alone ought to be enough for Alabama to voluntarily withdraw its name from playoff consideration, even if those losses were to the Kansas City Chiefs, Detroit Lions and 2007 New England Patriots.

Oh, but we’re not going to stop there, Alabama. Let’s look closer at those losses. One-possession loss to Tennessee in Neyland Stadium: Not great, but acceptable. Five-point loss to Vanderbilt for the first time in half a century: Earth-shattering in the moment, a little more tolerable in retrospect, and still survivable. Three-possession loss to an unranked Oklahoma team: Unforgivable. You want the moment that Alabama’s season imploded, it was right there on the field in Norman.

Worse still for Byrne’s argument: Alabama lost all three of those games to SEC opponents. So it wouldn’t have mattered if Alabama had scheduled middling schools for its out-of-conference games; the Tide doomed itself with its own SEC play.

Things don’t get any easier for Alabama outside the SEC. In future seasons, Alabama has already scheduled home-and-homes with heavyweights and non-cupcakes like Florida State (2025-26), Ohio State (2027-28), Notre Dame (2029-30) and Georgia Tech (2030-31). But look at the lesson of 2024 Clemson, which took two of its three losses to non-ACC schools: If you take care of business in your conference, your conference will take care of you.

So what’s next for Alabama? Clear out the schedule of any competitive non-conference opponents? Jump to the ACC, where the competition isn’t nearly as strong? Or maybe, just maybe, take off the houndstooth hat and the crimson blinders and take a long, hard look in the mirror?

Kalen DeBoer’s team struggled in the first year of the post-Saban era. That’s understandable … once. Going forward, the ethos Alabama must live by is a simple one:

Just win your damn games, and everyone will line up behind you.

Alabama has been given a great gift, the chance to see what the college football world is like without it. What the Tide decides to do with that gift will shape the SEC and college football for years to come, one way or another.