Clemson vs 'Bama Part IV: Some thoughts

As you've probably heard by now ten thousand times, Clemson and Alabama will face off in the postseason for the fourth year in a row. Monday evening's clash between the Tigers and Tide will be the third National Championship played between the two, with last year's meeting coming in the semifinal game. For obvious reasons, this consistency has allowed many reasonable comparisons to what the NBA has provided in the Warriors/Cavs saga. If you've been tuned out of hoops in the last half-decade, let me tell ya this: the general population is not particularly fond of parity's absence, which has unfortunately been the case in college football lately.

Derrick Henry and Deshaun Watson after Clemson vs 'Bama Part I

Look, I understand the frustration in seeing the exact outcome that everyone predicted back in August. Seriously, anyone who had a championship matchup of any combination of teams other than this one was just trying to stand out. Or they were just legitimately not that smart. Because not a single person who has paid even an ounce of attention should be surprised by this matchup. And you know what? As much as I can see the negative perspective of this, I'm not even a little bit mad about it. Come on people, these are the two clear-cut top programs in the country, and aside from last year's semifinal stinker, this matchup gave us two incredibly entertaining National Championships. There's a reason why we keep seeing them go head to head: because they're the best. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why watching the two best teams play each other is fantastic. Why would people whine and moan about watching an array of NFL talent compete? This is undoubtedly the highest quality product that college football could put on display, and people don't like that?

One major narrative that has been present in recent weeks, which has coincided with discussing a lack of parity, is the idea of playoff expansion and what that could look like in the future. That's certainly a consideration that I've taken part in, as it's a fun idea that would provide us with more entertainment at the end of the day. I mean, it's undeniable that the other bowl games, the non-playoff games, have seen intrigue decline since the playoff was introduced. The playoff has become the new standard in which teams aim to meet. Although expanding the playoff would make an appearance slightly less prestigious, I still think the aura of it being a playoff game gives it an edge in entertainment, at face value at least.

But in a season like this, a season where the championship matchup's predictability slightly ebbed the season's typical trepidation, does playoff expansion even matter? The main idea behind increasing the number of playoff berths is to create a scenario in which no worthy teams are on the outside looking in. Before all of the bowls games were played, it looked like there were a few teams who were worthy of a playoff spot but failed to do so. If the playoff had expanded to eight teams for this season, we would have seen the following games, according to the College Football Playoff rankings:

• No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 8 UCF
• No. 2 Clemson vs. No. 7 Michigan 
• No. 3 Notre Dame vs. No 6 Ohio State
• No. 4 Oklahoma vs. No. 5 Georgia

Again, I'd be all for watching these games and having the time of my life while doing it. This is a great idea if you're viewing the College Football Playoff strictly from an entertainment/financial standpoint. But if you take entertainment and money out of the playoff (which is probably the biggest oxymoron I've ever typed out in my life), its core purpose is to truly decipher who is the country's best team. The BCS unfortunately left us with a few big time "what if" scenarios through the years, but this is one of those years that the BCS would have given us this exact same matchup. The majority of the playoff has just given teams a chance to confirm that they are not one of the top two teams in the country. It's just reinforced that the top two teams are as advertised.

There are exceptions to this, with last year's playoff being the highlight; Georgia and Oklahoma gave us a double overtime thriller, in which both teams looked to be of championship caliber. Clemson seemingly played the part throughout the regular season, but the Tigers were quickly exposed in getting shellacked by 'Bama. But from a macro standpoint, a four team playoff last season made astronomically more sense than the BCS system. The other seasons in which Clemson and Alabama met in the National Championship, their semifinal wins were blowouts. The other teams didn't look like they even belonged there. There were two teams that were clearly the best, without some JV team in the No. 5 through 8 range complaining that they should've had a shot (thank Christ UCF lost to LSU, seriously).

So the saga continues; Clemson and Alabama meet in the natty ship with no doubt in anyone's minds that these are the two best teams. And all of those outsiders looking into the playoff, hootin' and hollerin' about how they should've been in the playoff, they all proved that they wouldn't have done a damn thing had they made the playoff; everyone but Ohio State that was ranked No. 3 through 9 lost their bowl game. Granted, Ohio State played No. 9 Washington so one of the teams ranked in that range had to win. But even then, we all know Ohio State would have been used as an absolute mop by either the Tide or the Tigers. And yeah they won the Rose Bowl, but allowing that Washington backdoor cover was bush league. "Good teams win, great team cover" - Eleanor Roosevelt. And then before the New Year's Six bowl games were played, Georgia definitely looked like a team that deserved to be in that final four but blew their chance. My word did they get manhandled on Tuesday night by Texas. They took the gamble of opening their mouth about playoffs before they played their bowl game, and it was worst case scenario for the Dawgs. Talking about a deserved playoff berth and then playing like that? Get outta here.

Have I been rambling about absolutely anything and everything aside from the actual game that's about to be played, Clemson vs 'Bama Part IV? Absolutely. But that's your fault for reading this far. It boils down to this: we can break down this game in an analytical sense all we want. Number crunching, computer data, all that jazz (investors? possibly you!). But heading into Monday, knowing that we'll witness a fight to be the undisputed heavyweight champ of college football (and knowing that UCF can't claim to be national champs again), it's a damn good feeling. It feels right. And I, for one, am ready to rumble. I complain a lot about the most irrelevant and minuscule things you could imagine. But trust me, watching Clemson and Alabama play in the National Championship is not something to complain about. Enjoy the damn ride.