Alabama?

In the final College Football Rankings, the defending champions Clemson finished #1, #2 was Oklahoma, and #3 was Georgia. This lead to one last big debate between two powerhouse teams, Alabama and Ohio State. Both schools were on the edge of the playoff and both had good arguments to get into the playoff.

“I understand why Alabama was allowed in,” senior Dan Waller. “Bama had one loss, and Ohio State had two. But to me OSU was cheated, and they should’ve been accepted because they played better opponents throughout the year and won their conference championship game. Bama did not even play in their championship game.”

Alabama (11-1) had 3 wins against Top 25 teams and their strength of record was #1 in the country. As for Ohio State (11-2) their argument was that they won the BIG TEN championship game, and with that they had 2 quality Top 10 wins, and also one of their losses was to #2 Oklahoma. Ohio State’s resume was clearly better.

“OSU won the BIG TEN conference championship. Championships should be weighted more for whether you get in the playoff or not,” junior Dawoud Almathrahi said. “LSU or Mississippi State was Alabama’s best win of the year and yet both of those teams aren’t even that good. LSU lost to Troy.”

It seemed that there were more arguments against these teams then there were for the two. Bama lost their last game of the season to their in-state rival Auburn and because of that Bama couldn’t even attend their conference championship. As for Ohio State, they weren’t even close in both of their losses. In the second week of the season Ohio State lost (at home) to #2 Oklahoma 31-16, they just couldn’t get any offense going. As for Ohio State’s second loss they lost at (7-5) Iowa but they didn’t just lose. They were blown out. Ohio State lost 55-24. They lost by 31 points to a team that finished the year with five losses.

In all teams that were accepted into the Top 4 by the committee the worst loss by any of those teams was a margin of 14 points. OSU’s loss was double that total and ultimately ended the team’s goal and dream of winning the National Championship.

“The committee made the right decision,” senior Josh Larson replied. “Although OSU had two Top 10 wins they lost by 31 to an average Iowa team. If you put Alabama on the field with Iowa they will not lose by 31. Some would say Bama lost to the only good team they played but that isn’t true. Back in the beginning of the year Bama played the #3 team Florida State and beat them while injuring their quarterback Deondre Francois. The injury ended hurting Florida State the rest of the year only winning six games and in doing so, it kind of spoiled Alabama’s resume.”

The decision was made, #1 Clemson will be playing #4 Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, in the new Mercedes-Benz Superdome in Atlanta, Georgia on New Year’s day at 8:45 PM. The story line will be overplayed on all sports networks, on tv, radio station, and websites. “For the third year in a row Clemson meets Bama in the playoffs, you won’t want to miss this one.” “It’ll be one for the ages.” But seriously in 2015 Bama beat Clemson 45-40 on the last drive of the game, and in 2016 Clemson returned the favor and beat Alabama 35-31 on the last play of the game. So who would not like a third game between the two teams, bring it on, “It’ll be one for the ages.”