The South has risen again and is at the center of the college football world.
Two Southeastern Conference schools, Georgia and Alabama, clash Monday with the national championship on the line. And it will be in Atlanta, the region’s most prominent city.
Both teams only have one loss on the season: And they were each to SEC rival Auburn.
The haters can complain all they want about the ninth national champion in 12 years from the conference, but you can’t deny these teams earned this. Georgia (13-1) beat mighty Oklahoma team 54-48 in a double-overtime classic, and Alabama (12-1) avenged last year’s national championship game loss to Clemson with a methodical 24-6 victory.
The only team who might have a case is unbeaten Central Florida – who just took down Auburn in the Peach Bowl. But Central Florida plays a different caliber of competition – its opponents in the eastern half of the American Athletic conference include teams like Temple and Connecticut. It’s the type of team with a roaring offense that the caliber of defenses in the SEC shut down.
Alabama, as it always seems to do, has the best resistance in America. The Crimson Tide are only giving up 11.1 points per game, and they totally shut down No. 1 Clemson, giving up only six points and 188 yards. For its part, Georgia has only allowed 15.7 points, good for No. 5 in the nation.
And that’s not all. On offense, Alabama is 12th in the nation with 37.9 points per game while Georgia is 17th with 36.3. Georgia has the top rushing duo in career yards in NCAA history in Sony Michel and Nick Chubb, and Alabama is like they always are under Nick Saban: A quarterback (Jalen Hurts) who won’t make the kind of mistakes that cause losses and a running game that pounds you into submission.
Simply put, these squads have proven themselves to be the most complete in the country and earned the right to play for a national title.
Who will win?
Las Vegas has Alabama as a 3.5- to 4.5-point favorite. I can’t disagree with that logic: It’s rarely wise to pick against Nick Saban and Alabama. Although Clemson did it last year, that required last-second heroics by one of the great quarterbacks in college football history, Deshaun Watson.
Georgia QB Jake Fromm is a solid player (20-29, 210 yards, 2 TDs versus Oklahoma), but he’s no Watson. So can Georgia run the ball against Alabama’s 2.7-yards-per-carry defense?
No, in my opinion. Prediction: Alabama 24, Georgia 17.
