First Look At An All-SEC Title Game (Alabama - Georgia)

ESPN ^ | 1-2-2017 | Heather Dinich

[blam]

It's only fitting that Atlanta, home to the SEC title game, is hosting the all-SEC College Football Playoff National Championship presented by AT&T.

No. 4 Alabama didn't play for the SEC title this year because it didn't win the SEC West, but the Tide will have a chance to finish the season as the best team in the conference and the country when they face SEC champion and No. 3 seed Georgia at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Georgia, which will be playing roughly 70 miles from its campus in Athens, will be the first team to play a national championship game in its home state since LSU played in New Orleans in 2012, when it lost to Alabama. That was also the last time two teams from the same conference played for the national title.

While this game will feature an abundance of talent at every position, the playmakers on both defenses are particularly elite. Georgia linebacker Roquan Smith won the Dick Butkus Award this season as the nation's best linebacker, and Alabama safety Minkah Fitzpatrick won the Chuck Bednarik (defensive player of the year) and Jim Thorpe (best defensive back) awards. Alabama entered the Allstate Sugar Bowl against Clemson allowing an FBS-low 11.5 points per game and held the Tigers to just two field goals. That stingy group will be tested against a Georgia offense that racked up 527 yards in a 54-48, double-overtime win over No. 2 Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl presented by Northwestern Mutual. Georgia's defense, meanwhile, entered the Rose Bowl ranked third nationally in scoring defense (13.2 points per game), holding opposing offenses to 158.3 passing yards per game, second in FBS. It did, however, allow OU a whopping 531 total yards.

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[Uncle Sham]

Look,what did Alabama achieve this year? They did not even win their half of the conference. I know that some losses are so bad as to give pause when selecting a participant BUT winning your conference championship SHOULD count for something extra when comparing teams. So Ohio State had a bad loss. They also WON their conference. There is a balance somewhere in how this should be viewed. You can’t just look at the loss. That championship should OUTWEIGH any loss.