College Football Championship goes all-SEC as Alabama to Meet Georgia for Title

The finalists for the 2017 NCAA football title have now been determined and fans of the Southeastern Conference couldn’t be happier.

The Alabama Crimson Tide and the Georgia Bulldogs will face off next Monday night at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta for all the marbles.

Both teams had only one loss and the two each spent time atop the college football rankings before winning their semi-final playoff games on New Year’s Day.

The then 12-1 Bulldogs were victorious in what was probably one of the most entertaining Rose Bowl games of all time. In a contest against the 12-1 Oklahoma Sooners that saw multiple lead changes, comebacks, huge plays, over 100 total points and over 1,000 yards of offense.

Tied at 45, the game then went into two overtimes before the Bulldogs blocked a field goal and on the next possession, won the game on a 27-yard dash by Sony Michel who finished with 181 yards and three touchdowns. The other half of the two-headed monster in the Georgia backfield was Nick Chubb who tallied 145 yards and two scores.

Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Baker Mayfield put forth a valiant effort for the Sooners despite an illness in the days before the game but with a spot on in the title game on the line, Oklahoma’s head coach Lincoln Riley inexplicably took the ball out of his hands. It was a decision that he will likely regret for a very long time.

It was the first-ever meeting between the teams.

The nightcap didn’t live up to the hype as the Crimson Tide rolled the overmatched Clemson Tigers 24-6 in a rematch of last year’s championship game.

The Sugar Bowl was a snoozer – at least compared to the Rose Bowl – as Clemson struggled to get anything going offensively, clearly missing the superstar quarterback DeShaun Watson who now plays for the NFL’s Houston Texans.

It was sweet revenge for Alabama which lost a thriller last January as Watson rallied Clemson and threw the deciding touchdown with time ticking down, giving the Tigers a 35-31 victory.

With the memory of that loss still stinging, the Tide’s swarming defense completely shut Clemson down in New Orleans last night, limiting them to 154 total yards in a 24-6 rout that wasn’t as close as the score indicates. They will now have the chance to add one more title to the trophy case of the Nick Saban dynasty if they can beat Georgia in front of what will be a raucous crowd in what is all but an official home game for them.

The game is scheduled at 8 pm ET on Monday night.