The University of Alabama's Crimson Tide won the national college football championship for the fifth time in nine years Monday in Atlanta, overcoming a 13-point halftime deficit to defeat the University of Georgia's Bulldogs in overtime 26-23.
Tide coach Nick Saban made the fateful halftime decision to replace his starting quarterback with a first-year student named Tua Tagovailas, who then proceeded with his teammates to complete the comeback by throwing the winning touchdown pass in overtime to DeVonto Smith, another first-year player.
For Saban, it was his sixth national title, tying him with another Crimson Tide coaching legend named Paul "Bear" Bryant. For the state of Georgia, this is the second time in the past year that a local football team blew a big lead to lose the big game in overtime to a dynasty.
So the Tide rolls once more, even though other institutions of higher learning (including Georgia) spent tons of money to lure away some of Saban's assistants to be their head coaches. But they still haven't learned how to defeat the master. Saban is now 12-0 against his former assistants.
Elsewhere, the University of Central Florida declared itself national champions with an undefeated season. But because they're not a Power Five school (Big 10, Pac-12, ACC, SEC and Big 12), they were ignored by the people who run the College Football Playoff and had to settle for a Peach Bowl appearance on New Year's Day. Alabama, by the way, ended up with a 13-1 record.
The CFP turned out to be another Southern affair, with all four teams from the same geographical area (Alabama, Clemson, Georgia and Oklahoma) participating, with two of them from the same conference meeting in the final. Those who complained about this lack of regional diversity have advocated for an eight-team playoff, which isn't going to happen at least until the CFP's TV deal with ESPN expires in 2025. Until then, if you want to find the best college football anywhere, go south.
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