Bowl games: 5-6 Season: 120-53
College Football Playoff national championship presented by AT&T in Santa Clara, Calif.
No. 2 Clemson (14-0) vs. No. 1 Alabama (14-0), 8 p.m. ESPN
Here we go again, and I'm not really complaining.
Some people are tired of Clemson-Alabama playoff games, but I don't think I am. And that's because I'm pretty sure this is going to be a great game that lives up to the first two meetings for national titles at the end of the 2015 and '16 seasons. In the first one, Alabama won, 45-40. The next season, Clemson got some revenge, and coach Dabo Swinney got his first trophy, 35-31. Is another matchup bad for the sport? It is good if the game is good, in my opinion.
Last year, these two met in a semifinal, and there were fewer fireworks, with Alabama's defense dominating in a 24-6 win. But I think we are in for a treat tonight. There's no doubt who the best teams in college football were this season. Georgia had a chance to make its mark. But a bad double-digit loss against LSU and then the inability to seal the victory against 'Bama in the SEC title game sunk its chances of staking its claim.
Notre Dame was undefeated until Clemson smacked it, 30-3, in the first semifinal, showing that the Irish once again couldn't hang with the cream of the crop. And Oklahoma got in the dance with one loss, but was down 28-0 to the Crimson Tide in the second semifinal before everyone got to their seats. Yeah, the Sooners made a comeback, but 45-34 was the best final they could muster. And just for good measure, UCF fans were quieted when their Knights were finally beaten, by LSU in the Fiesta Bowl, stopping UCF's winning streak at 25.
These are your gold standard teams. Alabama has overwhelmed its poor opponents by an average of 31 points, and Clemson has crushed its foes by an average of 29. Alabama is going for six championships in a decade. Clemson is going for two in three years and seems like the one program that is the closest to taking over the top spot among the sport entirely. If Nick Saban wins this game, he will have seven national titles overall, one more than legendary Alabama coach Bear Bryant, with one of Saban's coming at LSU.
So who has the edge? Tua Tagovailoa, Damien Harris, Jerry Jeudy and the Tide or Trevor Lawrence, Travis Etienne, Tee Higgins and the Tigers? I'm going with Clemson. The Tigers have dominated teams just as much as the Tide since Lawrence took over for Kelly Bryant at QB, and their defense is just as good, I believe, as the Tide's. And Alabama has been showing a few more cracks recently than Clemson, giving up 34 against Oklahoma and 28 vs. Georgia. I'm going out on a limb a bit, but the line has come down from Alabama being a 7.5-point favorite to a 4.5-point favorite, so there are plenty of believers in the Tigers making it a close game, at the very least. Mostly, I'm just hoping for and thinking we are going to get a tight contest after the disappointing semifinals because we know these are the two best teams in the country. So sit back and enjoy the last game of the college football season.
Clemson 30, Alabama 28
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