The first two games of the College Football Playoff were not fun to watch. They were uninspiring blowouts in bad time slots, with Alabama and Clemson heartlessly dismantling their opponents. So were the rest of the New Year’s Six games.
The Playoff was bad, but here are 5 reasons to be excited about the Clemson-Bama Championship
It’s good vs. evil. It’s strength vs. strength. It’s No. 1 vs. No. 2. It’s the dang Championship, and it’s gonna be dope, is what I’m trying to say.
Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
Perhaps these games have sapped you of your will to watch college football.
We’re here to throw you in a shower and yell at you until you wake up and snap out of it. The College Football Playoff National Championship approaches on Jan. 11, and it should be a freakin’ hootenanny.
Even amongst championship games, this one should be a particularly brilliant battle.
1. They’re the very, very clear two best teams in the country.
Those garbage semifinals were just a testament to how great these two can be.
With revisionist history, we can argue the top four teams in college football weren’t in the Playoff. Maybe Ohio State would’ve given Alabama a better shot than Michigan State. Stanford could’ve held up better than Oklahoma.
But when the bracket came out, there was little debate that the four teams with the resumes that deserved to make the Playoff made it. And of those four, the best two ripped the hearts out of the other two and ate them on live television.
There will be no revisionist history of the final. Unlike the BCS era and before, we know full well that these are college football’s top two squads. The advanced stats, which do not necessarily go along with the bracket at all, agree. And now we get to see them go berserk on each other.
2. Styles make fights.
Sometimes championships are between two great teams that don’t make for good stylistic matchups because they’re too similar, even if one’s better. See Bama vs. MSU.
What makes this game fascinating is that each team is the other’s foil, designed to stop what their opponent is good at.
Clemson has one of the best offensive lines in the country. Alabama has one of the best defensive lines in the country. And vice versa.
Clemson has one of the best passing games in the country, and the best dual-threat QB, Deshaun Watson, in the country. Alabama has the best passing defense in the country.
If you’re a fan of trench warfare, Alabama-Clemson should be pornographic. If you’re a fan of explosive passing offenses, Clemson’s got you covered, but Alabama might be the only team that can make them look mediocre.
Who comes out on top in these fights? We have no idea! There is no good way to predict the results of matchups this good besides grabbing a beverage with you and enjoying.
3. It’s always fun to root against Alabama.
In the Cotton Bowl, we witnessed the firepower of a fully operational Alabama. This team has practically no real weaknesses.
The defense is as close to perfect as a college football defense can dream of being. The best pass defense in the country is attached to an even better run defense. In past years, the Tide’s one weakness was a moderately good pass rush alongside an incredible ... everything else. This year, their pass rush is also good.
The offense is powered by Derrick Henry, the Heisman winner who could put up 200 yards on most defenses while napping. Henry faced three of the top 25 rushing defenses, according to S&P+ in Wisconsin, Ole Miss and Georgia. He averaged 140 yards on 6.8 yards per carry in those games.
Lately, Bama can pass when it needs to. Against the No. 12 pass defense in the country per S&P+, Jacob Coker played his best game of the season, 25-of-30 passing with 286 yards and two touchdowns.
With most teams, I’d be able to simply marvel at how across-the-board amazing this is. But this is Alabama. Alabama being unbelievable doesn’t feel impressive. It just feels like Alabama going for its 16th claimed title.
And as long as they’re a year-in, year-out juggernaut, they’re the easiest team to cheer against. In the title game, they actually have a chance of losing.
4. Clemson is the best team you can ever call a “lovable underdog.”
Clemson is 14-0, looking to become the first 15-0 FBS team of all-time. They were No. 1 in every Playoff ranking this year. Bill Connelly was calling them the country’s best team a month before those rankings started. They’re demonstrably better than 126 of the other 127 FBS teams.
The only team we have a question about is Alabama, which Vegas set as a touchdown favorite before the Cotton Bowl even ended.
While the Tigers have are one of the better programs in the ACC, it’s been rare to see them competing for national championships. Their only title came in 1981 under a 33-year-old Danny Ford. Ford went on to win four more ACC titles, but after his 1989 departure, the school fell into a lull. They won the conference in 1991, then not again until 2011.
Dabo Swinney has revitalized the program. He’s still young for a college coach at 46, but he’s been in charge for seven full seasons. He’s constructed Clemson into his powerhouse. The Tigers have won 10 games in five straight seasons. There’s always chatter that some day Swinney will leave for his alma mater, Alabama, but, well, not any time soon.
The Tigers haven’t been a routine title contender at any point in history, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see them become one in the next few years under Swinney. For the new biggest win in school history to come now, against the school where Swinney played and first coached, would be pretty neat.
So even though Clemson wins a lot and might continue winning a lot, it’s the easy choice for a neutral fan. I’ll happily put on orange and purple, even if they do clash horrifically. Also, Clemson’s better at dancing than Alabama is.
5. It’s the dang National Championship.
I repeat: IT’S THE DANG NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME. Stop whining about how bad bowl season was. Stop whining about how bad the Playoff was. There is just this, the beautiful finale. And we can’t wait to see what happens.
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