It will be the same process. A bunch of good to great conservatives will run hard in the early primaries. The Designated Candidate will lay low and contribute to smear ads at the leading conservative that will pretty much end that man’s bid because many voters will get nervous and think well where there’s smoke there’ fire. The conservatives will be flattened one by one. Then in the later primnaries the RNC selectee, i.e. the next in line will win as the last man standing. It has happened rather routinely If it were a head to head between Cruz and Romney, say, the outcome would be different. If it appears to be shaping up that way the RNC et al will finance and push other conservative candidates and the result will be the same. The open primaries are foregone as they will have many Democrats in them voting for the candidate who doesn’t actually want the Presidency, just the Nomination. The Republican Party is really a semi closed club.
One might have thought so two months ago - even a cynic like me. But I have more faith in what has happened with the electorate since then and in the egregiousness of Obama’s actions pissing them off even more. And, at this point, I’m just not into defeatism.