College football championship weekend is finally here.

The stakes are high on Saturday as teams across the country compete for the title of conference champion, while eight programs in particular compete to secure a spot in the 12-team College Football Playoff round.

Five of the 12 CFP spots are awarded to the top-ranked conference champions, meaning the winners of Saturday’s SEC, Big Ten, ACC and Big 12 championship games will earn a spot along with Mountain West champion Boise State . And at least three of those winning teams on Saturday will receive a bye into the quarterfinals in the first round.

While the winners of these championship games can enjoy a stress-free Sunday during the College Football Playoff selection show, the losers will be sweating in hopes of landing one of seven total bids.

So how does the College Football Playoff Committee judge the losing teams in these conference championship games? ESPN’s College game day Host Rece Davis asked CFP Committee Chairman Warde Manuel whether the losing teams will be rated similarly to the rest of the “total pool,” which includes teams not playing in a conference title game.

“It’s probably fair to say that, yes,” Manuel said. “We don’t look at it as an overall pool, but we will evaluate the teams and how they play. Again, Rece, this is something that was done every year in the last week we rated the teams. Teams.” can move up and down, but what you won’t see is teams that aren’t playing moving above or below other teams that aren’t playing.

Manuel then gave the example of No. 4 Notre Dame and No. 6 Ohio State not playing in a conference championship game this weekend. The Buckeyes could move up or down in the final rankings released Sunday, but they won’t be able to overtake the Fighting Irish.

“Ohio State will not move above Notre Dame, and Notre Dame will not move below Ohio State,” Manuel said. “But they can fluctuate and move in terms of their ranking in the top 25. And that depends on the championship games.”