ESPN analyst likes Alabama over Clemson football in 2021
The Clemson football team is expected to be one of the top contenders for a spot in the CFB Playoff this coming season.
The Tigers have made six-straight CFB Playoff appearances, won six-straight ACC Championships and have brought home two National Title trophies in the same timespan. It should come as no surprise that national analysts are once again high on Clemson football heading into this season.
In the spirit of March Madness, ESPN’s Chris Low wrote a feature last week on what a 64-team CFB Playoff would look like and now he has predicted what his ‘Final Four’ and National Championship would look like.
So, how does the ESPN analyst see things playing out? Here’s a look at his Final Four and then the result of the National Championship:
Final Four: Alabama 35, Iowa State 28; Clemson 28, Georgia 23.
National Championship: Alabama 30, Clemson 24.
What’s his reasoning for taking the Crimson Tide to win it all?
"“Would it even be a “real” national championship game without one of these two teams? This marks the seventh straight year that Alabama or Clemson has played for the national championship and the fourth time that they’ve met in the title game,” Low wrote. “The Tigers, brimming with future NFL talent on their defensive line, shut down the Crimson Tide’s running game for much of the game. But Young has a clean pocket in the second half and opens up things with the passing game, giving Saban his seventh national title at Alabama. But the worst news for the rest of the college football world comes after the game when Saban announces that he’s going to coach at least seven more years.”"
Clemson football is legitimate competition at the top, but the Tigers have to finish the job
There’s no doubt that the Tigers are one of the top programs in the nation and they have plenty of talent and firepower to pull off a National Championship victory.
Alabama has been on a dynasty unlike anything we’ve ever seen in College Football before and that’s a credit to the job Nick Saban has done building the Crimson Tide. You can’t fault any analyst for picking Bama over Clemson at this point, but it does show the power that the Tigers possess.
Clemson has proven to become legitimate competition for Alabama year-in and year-out. That’s why Low had the Tigers advancing so far into the bracket and eventually making it to the National Championship game.
In the end, this is just something fun to pass the time by until we see actual College Football again, but it does give a glimpse into what we’re likely to see when analysts begin to make their preseason predictions for this upcoming season.