Three Thoughts - Oklahoma Mistakes Cost Them Everything in A Big Comeback Win For Alabama
The Sooners will certainly remember this one as an opportunity that slipped away fast.
I want you to know that this is the time to convert from free to paid subscription for some of you who may have the temptation. Perhaps just put it on your Christmas list or knock out someone else who may appear on your list. Either way, details are below for the best deal of the year. 25% annuals, or to put it in monthly terms, 12 months for the price of 7 1/2, so we would love to have you!
In many ways, this is the sort of showdown we all had in mind when we thought about the college football playoffs. Maybe not the 2nd leg of a home-and-home, mind you, but a chance for two classic and iconic programs to have a showdown with the whole nation watching and hanging on every play. This is the college football playoffs grand design that we all pictured in our heads for decades. It took a while, but we are now here where we have a true win-or-go-home clash of the titans on a field in front of us.
It was so beautiful in nearly every way. The colors and the noise. The atmosphere and the setting were electric. The darkness of a night game in December with the incredible illuminance of a stadium at full voice. If you could bottle what we love about this sport, there is a chance you might capture that evening as an exhibit of progress from what we used to expect for college football during Christmas Break where neutral field bowl games were the best we could do. With very few notable exceptions, those settings can not compare with on-campus playoff football.
If I may digress from the spectacle of Friday for a moment, I would do so to make the point that this should be leaned into even more. In a perfect playoff setting, whether it be the current 12-team format or what we assume is the eventual 16-team plan, I agree with my friend Joel Klatt in submitting that the first two rounds need to be on campuses. So, this round is fine, but the next round, too. There is no way those four teams that got byes through this round – Indiana, Ohio State, Georgia, and Texas Tech – should not also enjoy home field advantage in the next round. The winner of last night’s game should have to then travel to Indiana to take on the Hoosiers at their place. The winner of this morning’s game in College Station should then travel to play the Buckeyes in Columbus. Oregon (I assume) should have to visit Lubbock. And Ole Miss should be headed back to Athens. Instead, we are making sure the Bowl games live on, but for me, that is capitulating to tourism instead of spectacle. Make the “Final Four” the neutral field conclusions to the tournament, but if we are going to do this, let’s do it right. The next round is also home fields and then dump out of conference title games altogether and this present weekend would actually be Round 2 and the Round 1 games would have happened a week ago. The Final Four would be around New Year’s Day and presto, everything is perfect.
I admit that was quite a digression. This game was a classic and the action was physical throughout and led by defensive might. The swing of momentum that Oklahoma suffered will be stuck in their heads throughout the offseason as a tremendous opportunity that got away from them at the worst time possible.
And that is where we should start My Three Thoughts:
– The Sooners had an absolute dream start where the game script was dialed, the defense was in full attack mode, the stadium was rocking like never before, and Alabama appeared to still be mired in the depths of their November slump. And then the entire thing turned on a dime midway through the 2nd Quarter and 17-0 flipped in a tornado that ended their season.
