2013 BCS National Championship coverage: Alabama initiates Notre Dame, 42-14

I actually didn’t find out about the GIF until I got back from the game. Our phones (my girlfriend was sitting next to me) went crazy with just the TV shot, and mine ran out of battery from it. My friends that didn’t make the game but took the trip and tailgated immediately started making memes and sending them around. Getting messages from people I haven’t heard from in a while really hasn’t stopped, even now.

We’re trying to make a positive out of it though. My friends and I had a cool idea to set up a donation page through IndieGoGo and raise money for Leukemia research. Manti Te’o’s girlfriend passed away this season from the disease and our modest goal is to raise $5,000 in his and her honor. We’ll donate the entire amount to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society on behalf of the entire Irish family.

We knew the BCS National Championship TV ratings were pretty high for cable, and even higher, considering the game was a blowout. But those numbers just indicate an average of viewership over the course of the whole 42-14 beatdown.

Now we know exactly when people decided the massacre wasn’t worth their time:

Rather than wait for columnists to bait readers into blind Internet anger, we at SB Nation believe in setting the curve ourselves and doing so honestly. On Troll Tuesdays, we attempt to construct the most obnoxious column on earth. Today: Let’s talk about Alabama.

MIAMI — It was a night of bright lights in Miami, and a dark day for college football.

The Crimson Tide are no strangers to the cover of Sports Illustrated, as they have been featured by the publication 17 times since 1966, according to the S.I. Vault. That bests their national championship total, which now stands at 15.

Sports Illustrated went with the title “Rule Tide,” which may fall only second in the race for best pun title to the Times-Journal’s “Miami Ice” BCS Championship newspaper headline.

1. Ditch the pleasantries. I don’t like you, you don’t like me, and we don’t like each other, Notre Dame. I really don’t like you for a number of reasons, most of them petty, and some of them not as much. Mostly I don’t like you because of this hangover I got celebrating your public demolition last night. But there’s other reasons, and not all of them involve this bourbon barbed wire halo I’m wearing today.

2. The first reason I don’t like you is that you did something right. You took the bid to the national title game because you had no choice in the matter, because hell, you have to take a national title shot if you can get it, and you have to think that yes, you can come out and compete, fight, and even win against the greatest dynasty in modern college football history. You have to think those things because you are a football team made up of football players, competitive people who embrace the possible no matter the situation. You did the right thing, and it led to reason No. 2 and the resulting hair-ache this morning.

Jones helped open up big holes on the way to 28 first downs and four scoring drives of 80 yards or more.

First, it seems Alabama wasn’t impressed by the previously-undefeated Irish when preparing for the BCS title game. Some may go as far to say the Crimson Tide didn’t respect what Notre Dame brought to the table at all. Hard to argue, considering the outcome:

It wasn’t all negative from Alabama. They did have some nice things to say about Notre Dame. Even for a player that may have been exposed against a physical Crimson Tide offense:

Those fans looking for more shots of A.J. McCarron’s Brent Musburger-endorsed girlfriend may be disappointed.

One has to respect Notre Dame for going right at Goliath. One also has to pity the results.

The Tide gained 309 yards in 41 first-half plays. That’s a rather impressive total against anyone, really. But against a defense that had been allowing just 287 yards per game, one that allowed more than 309 yards in a game just twice in the regular season? That’s near-perfection.

Notre Dame fell out of the top-two in both polls, dropping all the way to No. 4 in the AP, and to No. 3 in the Coaches Poll. Some may say the voters were nice to the Fighting Irish, after they were completely outmatched by the Crimson Tide on Monday night. Undefeated Ohio State slotted ahead of Notre Dame at No. 3 in the AP.

The SEC was the dominant conference all season in the polls, and that continued with the final rankings. The conference that has now won seven-straight BCS titles tallied five teams in the top 10 in both polls, and seven teams overall in each. Vanderbilt finished the season ranked No. 20 and No. 23 in the Coaches and AP.

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish got blown out of the water by the Alabama Crimson Tide on Monday night in the BCS Championship Game. There was plenty of intrigue, pomp and circumstance surrounding this game already, but it was also a chance for draft junkies to get a good look at the next generation of NFL stars, and there were plenty of big names on display.

Let’s take a look at the players on Notre Dame’s side who had a chance to shine and impress scouts on college football’s biggest stage.

Let’s take a look at the biggest names on Alabama’s side.

A mountain at 6’2 and 323 pounds, Warmack is possibly the best guard prospect since Steve Hutchinson. He’s a relentless mauler, the best run blocker in the country. There is room for improvement in pass protection, but he rarely gets beat and more than holds his own. One of the most pro-ready linemen in years, he will get drafted high and start immediately. There are very few holes in his game.

Nick Saban and his team had no plans to return to Alabama immediately Monday night, as it appears they’ll spend the night resting up in Miami. Brett McMurphy of ESPN reports that the Tide will arrive at Tuscaloosa Regional Airport around 12:45 p.m. local time on Tuesday.

Saban and Alabama started off their title run in 2009-10, when they beat Texas 37-21 in the National Championship game in Pasadena. After a year hiatus from winning titles, Alabama returned to the title game in a rematch with LSU, where they pounded the Tigers 21-0 in New Orleans. Now the Tide can celebrate once again.

Alabama beat the shit out of Notre Dame. I really don’t know any more appropriate way to put it.

It was 28-0 at the half, 35-0 before the Irish scored and 42-14, the final score, when Alabama pulled its starters. (It was probably like 7-0 when Bama fans started lining up for championship T-shirts.) The Tide demolished Notre Dame up and down the box score, dominating the eyeball test and score sheet from start to finish. It was ugly, unfair and hard to watch without feeling bad for the Irish -- and that’s insane to say about one of the most esteemed programs in the country. The only real competition: Barrett Jones and A.J. McCarron getting into a scuffle while up by 35.

There is nothing out of the ordinary about Alabama fans at all. Nope. Not one bit.

Here is what the shirts look like. Ho hum, no big deal, just 15 titles, nothing to see here:

Defensive lineman Jesse Williams was the first real injury on the night for the Tide. Midway through the fourth quarter, the Alabama nose guard would pull up and need assistance from the trainers. He would leave the field and miss the rest of the drive.

Notre Dame did go on to score on that drive to cut the deficit from 35 to 28. Williams and the Alabama defense did their job for most of the night though in shutting down the Irish offense. Alabama has manhandled the Irish for three quarters en route to building an early five touchdown lead.

Nobody really understood what happened here, but it was some sort of clock management issue that caused the normally mild-mannered quarterback to lash out at his normally mild-mannered roommate with a 35-point lead. Bama did have to waste a time out, but ... they were up by 35 points and this is Jones’ last college game.

ESPN’s cameras then showed the two headed to the bench without speaking. Brent Musburger termed it, “a lover’s quarrel.” I think we’re done here!

I’m not sure why Eddie Lacy’s braids came undone given that Notre Dame hasn’t laid a hat on him all night, but there he was with about 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter, fixing his braids on the Alabama bench.

Yes, really.

SHOTS FIRED from SI Swimsuit model and Dougie enthusiast Kate Upton, y’all.

Oh man, zingers galore in the BCS National Championsexyship tonight. Take notice, this isn’t your grandfather’s football. It’s the go-daddy-dot-com-sexed-up version you can’t see on TV. It’s 2013, now, so take notice. Think we’re joking? An NFL player tweeted his phone number to A.J. McCarron’s girlfriend, Brent Musburger was drooling all over her (okay, Brent drools over just about everything) and LeBron is out there following her too:

Eddie Lacy has 137 total yards so far. Rudy could’ve been offsides by 10 whole feet, and it wouldn’t have made any difference.

I made a promise, Mr Frodo. A promise. “Don’t you leave him, Samwise Gamgee.” And I don’t mean to. I don’t mean to.

This is getting a little out of hand. Ha Ha Clinton-Dix came from Alternate Route 1 to make an interception on Everett Golson on the Fighting Irish’s first drive of the second half.

Look, it’s one thing to be up 28-0, but please Bama don’t hurt ‘em. We’ve already got some Irish fans at the stadium crying and everything. I don’t know if Saban is going to ever leave Alabama for the NFL or not, but it’s pretty clear he’s got this whole college coaching thing figured out. Maybe to up the entertainment value of this game, the BCS should let Uncle Luke coach Notre Dame for the rest of the game.

So, this happened:

That’s Arizona Cardinals’ defensive tackle and former Florida State Seminole Darnell Dockett, a multi-year Pro Bowler, tweeting a phone number to Katherine Webb, the girlfriend of Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron who is growing more popular by the minute, as Brent Musberger gave her an awkward shoutout during the National Championship broadcast on ESPN.