To nobody's great surprise, except maybe the usual punch-drunky leprechauns of Notre Dame, Clemson blistered them in a national semi-final game. The Tigers are the real deal. The Fighting Irish were WAY over their heads tangling with those guys.
But this is what happens when so many pundits always have Notre Dame as some sort of sentimental favorite. Win one for the Gipper, Rudy, and all that nonsense. ND stubbornly refuses to join a conference, and why should they? They have their own mega cha-ching TV deal, and get to pick who they want to play. Notice on the rare occasions they play a "ranked" team, it's always at home. And during any season, they'll load up on patsies along the way. But when it comes time to tee it up against the "big boys", as in Clemson, they're typically get embarrassed. Getting beat by 30 points (and it could and should have been much worse) on national television at a neutral site is what they had coming.
As noted in this space before, what's with the name Fighting Irish anyway? The real Notre Dame is a cathedral in Paris. Well OK, the Fighting French wouldn't have the same ring to it, but can't they even get their countries right?
On the other side of the equation was the Oklahoma/Alabama semi-final. The #1 ranked Crimson Tide were a two touchdown favorite going in. The only surprise was that they didn't "cover". After jumping out to a 28-0 nothing lead, maybe they just got bored.
As good as Alabama is though, the thing about that game was Oklahoma showed the Tide was vulnerable, particularly on defense, as the game wore on. While Bama remains a scoring machine, they also give up a lot of big plays to an offense that knows how to exploit their weaknesses.
And the above-mentioned Clemson plays fast, has depth, and a ton of offensive weapons they'll no doubt have ready to go in the national championship game next week.
After the two semi-final games, few would dispute the best two teams in the country will be duking it out for all the marbles.
It should be the proverbial dandy. Pretty sure Bama will be favored, but not by much. The same two teams have flip-flopped national titles the last three years.
Bring it on.
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