In the end, it wasn't even close. Alabama blew out Notre Dame 42-14 and Nick Saban has now won three national titles in four years.
Here are the final moments...
And here is the trophy presentation...
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Alabama won their 15th national championship tonight, and ESPN was all over it. In fact, prior to the game, ESPN's "Gameday" set used an Alabama helmet with the #14. And after the game, they switched to a helmet with the #15.
It is the attention to detail that separates the Worldwide Leader. Here is the pre-game shot...
And here is the same set after the game...
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Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron's girlfriend Katherine Webb became famous last night when ESPN showed a close up of her in the stands.
Webb is a model, and the current Miss Alabama. Her good looks — and commenter Brent Musberger's on-air fascination with her good looks— got her about 100,000 new Twitter followers in the space of a few hours last night.
Some of those follows came from pro and college athletes.
One of them was Darnell Dockett of the Arizona Cardinals, who tweeted his phone number at Webb in a supposed failed direct message (although we have a hunch it was a joke):
After the game, McCarron told him to settle down:
Another athlete who tweeted about Webb was Georgia QB Aaron Murray.
McCarron fired back at him as well:
Smart stuff from McCarron, who will probably have to deal with this stuff until he graduates.
Here's a sampling of athletes talking about Webb. She was a big hit:
AJ McCarrons girlfriend is the reason God invented PVR. #Pause
— Paul Bissonnette (@BizNasty2point0) January 8, 2013
When Notre Dame is on offense they should just show McCarron's GF til they punt.
— Brett Anderson (@BrettAnderson49) January 8, 2013
I want to be a qb! Holy smoke show AJ
— Logan Morrison (@LoMoMarlins) January 8, 2013
AJ girl badddddddd!
— Kendall Marshall (@KButter5) January 8, 2013
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While watching Alabama destroy Notre Dame 42-14 last night, one thought came to mind: How in the world did this Alabama team lose a game?
The short answer: Johnny Manziel (Johnny Football), the Texas A&M freshman QB who won the Heisman Trophy on the strength of a 29-24 win over Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Bama's lone loss in 2012.
Manziel was 24/31 for 253 yards passing, with 2 TDs. He also ran for 92 yards on 18 carries, and didn't turn the ball over. At one point, he fumbled, scooped it up, and threw for a TD:
In retrospect — after watching Alabama wipe Notre Dame off the face of the field with a jarring casualness last night — the performance is even better than we realized.
A&M was up 20-0 at one point, and it wasn't even all that close.
It wasn't all on Manziel. ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit and CBS's Gary Danielson have both pointed out that Bama inexplicably refused to blitz Johnny Football in that game. In addition, AJ McCarron played what was perhaps his worst game of the year.
But in a general sense, Alabama managed to lose because they played a poor game against an elite, non-traditional QB.
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This year's BCS Championship game was supposed to be an all-time classic featuring two of college football's most storied programs. But in the end, there was nothing classic about the game itself.
The blowout led to some clever and telling headlines in newspapers from the states of Alabama and Indiana.
On the next few pages we will take a look at some of the best (via Newseum.org).
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The BCS Championship game itself was over five minutes after kickoff as Alabama rolled to a 42-14 win. But as usual there were plenty of entertaining and telling moments on and off the field.
From A.J. McCarron's girlfriend, to Nick Saban looking uncomfortable, and sad Irish fans, there were many fun highlights you might have missed.
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Nick Saban led Alabama to its third national championship in four years. It was also Saban's fourth national championship as a head coach, leaving him just two behind Paul "Bear" Bryant who has the most (6) championships as a head coach during the poll era (since 1936).
Even more impressively, Saban has won four titles in 17 seasons as a head coach. Bryant won his first championship in his 17th season. Bryant did start much younger, having won his fourth title at age 60. Nick Saban is 61.
Here's a look at how quickly Saban is accumulating championship trophies...
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Here's some raw meat for everyone who hates the BCS.
The Colley Matrix— one of six computer rankings that go into the BCS rankings — STILL has Notre Dame ranked #1 ahead of Alabama in its final analysis.
Alabama blew Notre Dame off the field on Monday night in a 42-14 win that was actually more brutal than the score indicated:
The Colley Matrix hasn't been high on Bama all year. Before the game, it had the Tide ranked 5th behind Notre Dame, Florida, Ohio State, Stanford.
Three of the other five computers published post-season rankings, and all of them had Alabama #1.
The computer rankings only make up one-third of a team's overall BCS ranking. So in practice, the Colley Matrix makes up only 5.5% of a team's overall number.
But still, it's a direct affront to common sense.
Here's an appropriate AJ McCarron GIF:
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The turnover in college football is more constant than any other sport.
The season lasts five months, and then hundreds of players and storylines are immediately replaced with new ones. As a result, things that happened just a few years ago feel like ancient history.
In that vein, we took a look back at the Alabama players who starred on the Tide's title-winning teams in 2009 and 2011.
These guys are still in their mid-20s, but their names are already coated in nostalgia. Most are in the NFL, but they haven't found the resounding success some thought they would.
He was arrested last year for allegedly firing a gun during a fight in his hometown of Decatur, Alabama. The arrest gave us this iconic photo.
He was most recently arrested for giving a police officer a false name.
He plays for the Raiders.
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Reuben Foster, the top high school linebacker in the country, had second thoughts about attending Auburn University and instead will spurn his hometown school in favor of playing football at Alabama. This change of heart came after he originally decommitted from Alabama to attend Auburn.
The move comes after Foster got a large Auburn logo tattooed on his forearm.
Right about now, Foster is probably wondering if he can decommit from the tattoo (via ESPN)...
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It is National Signing Day for high school football recruits, and so far 276 of ESPN's top 300 recruits have committed to schools in one of the six BCS conferences or Notre Dame. Below is a look at the schools that have landed at least five top 300 recruits.
So far, Ohio State leads the way with 17 top 300 recruits and 12 in the top 150. But overall, it is the SEC that is dominating the rankings. Of the 12 schools with at least ten of the top 300, six are in the SEC. And so far, 41% (111) have committed to an SEC school. The Big Ten is next with 46, followed by the Pac-12 (40), ACC (35), Big 12 (24), and Big East (8).
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In the 2011-12 school year, the University of Alabama football team generated $81.9 million in revenue, and the rest of the athletic department brought in another $42.2 million in revenue. When an athletic program is bringing in that much money, they can afford to build a new, state-of-the-art training facility.
The building which was introduced to the media this week, is 37,000 square-feet and cost $9 million to build.
On the next few pages we'll take a closer look at the home of the defending national champions football team...
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This past weekend, more than 160,000 college football fans showed up for the spring scrimmages of Alabama and Auburn. Those are the biggest crowds for spring games this year, and show that even scrimmages can be big money for the schools.
In the case of Auburn, they charged $5 per ticket (students were free) for the game in which attendance was reported to be 83,401. That's nearly $400,000 for a game that is essentially a glorified practice. And that doesn't include concession sales.
Of the 72 Division I (FBS) spring games played so far, schools have averaged 17,559 tickets distributed. And the SEC leads the way with seven of the ten largest crowds reported. Here are the top 20 attendance figures so far (data via SBNation.com)...
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These days, college football programs seemingly do whatever they need to do to stand out from the rest of the competition.
Even at Alabama, a school that has won three of the past four BCS titles, the program is still focused on upgrading facilities and luring in recruits with innovative ideas. The most recent example? A waterfall.
That’s right, a waterfall – in the Crimson Tide locker room. 2014 quarterback recruit David Cornwell tweeted such out last night, and Tuscaloosa News‘ Cecil Hurt backed him up.
That waterfall in Bama’s locker room is about to be legit! C’mon who has a waterfall.. No one!
— DC5 (@DavidCornwell5) June 17, 2013
That’s right. A waterfall. RT @DavidCornwell5: That waterfall in Bama’s locker room is about to be legit! C’mon who has a waterfall. No one!
— Cecil Hurt (@CecilHurt) June 17, 2013
The school has not released a visual of what it will look like, but one can assume we might see some crimson-colored water flowing.
A tip of the cap to the Tide. If Alabama is securing recruits with man-made water structures, the rest of the SEC is doomed.
The University of Alabama recently spent $9 million renovating its football facility.
Last week, they unveiled it in a video tour on the school athletic department website.
It's spectacularly over the top. There are arcade games, pool tables, 30-foot-long hot tubs, and much more.
In big-time college football, having shiny new facilities is a huge recruiting tool. And it's clear that Alabama included every bell and whistle they could find in order to woo the best high school players in the country. The school pulled in $82 million in football revenue last year, so it can afford it.
This thing is nuts.
The preseason college football USA Today Coaches Poll is out, and Alabama is the clear No. 1.
The Crimson Tide got 58 of 62 possible first-place votes. Ohio State (No. 2) got three first-place votes and Texas A&M (No. 6) got one.
Here's the top 25 broken down by conference: SEC (6), Pac-12 (5), Big Ten (5), Big 12 (4), ACC (2), plus Louisville, Boise State and Notre Dame.
No huge surprises. USC and Texas are a bit lower than anticipated, and Notre Dame is a bit higher considering they've lost their quarterback.
Here's the full poll:
As the fight over paying college athletes intensifies, Nick Saban is not shy about letting high school kids know that they can make millions if they come play for Alabama.
Below is a look at a recruiting flyer being used by the Alabama football team that was obtained by ABC 33/40 in Birmingham. The flyer consists of fictional checks written to each of the Alabama players selected in this year's NFL draft. The amounts on each check represent the total value of the contracts they signed.
On top of the checks is the amount "$51,810,000," which represents the total value of those nine contracts.
Obviously the promise of a pro career is not a new strategy in recruiting. But Alabama has taken it to a new level with what appears to be a subtle promise that playing for Alabama can make you rich...
University of Florida football coach Will Muschamp and his coaches were forced to return their stock of Nike game apparel because the items didn't have enough swoosh logos, an industry source confirmed to Business Insider.
The same demand was apparently made at several other big-time college football programs including Alabama, as first reported by Paul Lukas of Uni-Watch.com.
A source confirmed to Business Insider that the University of North Carolina football team was also forced to return its Nike apparel and there is evidence that it happened at several other schools.
Nike was concerned that its swoosh logo would not be visible on the polos, windbreakers, and jackets during television broadcasts because the items originally just had swooshes on the sleeves.
Nike, who will pay the University of Florida $1.8 million this year and also provides $2.1 million worth of equipment to promote the brand, added swoosh logos to the front of the items and then returned them to the team.
While the Gators' apparel was fixed prior to their first game, the UNC staff was not asked to return the items until after their first game against South Carolina. During that game, Tar Heels head coach Larry Fedora wore a polo with only a swoosh logo on the left sleeve.
The same situation appeared to have happened with defending champions Alabama. According to a source for Lukas, they were asked to return their Nike apparel, but not until after they played their first game against Virginia Tech. Like Fedora, Nick Saban's polo had a swoosh on the sleeve and not the chest.
USC head coach Lane Kiffin was also wearing a polo without a chest logo during his team's first game in Hawaii. It seems safe to say he will be wearing a polo with a chest logo when the Trojans play on Saturday night.
However, the move did not impact all schools contracted to wear Nike apparel. Virginia Tech was not asked to return anything according to a source with the school. Head coach Frank Beamer and his staff's apparel already had logos on the chest.
It is unclear how many teams were impacted by this move. Nike did not return a call seeking comment. But the seemingly panic-driven demand shows just how important logo placement is and how tight Nike's grip is in the world of college sports.
While fans continue to debate whether or not Johnny Manziel should be paid a few thousand dollars to sign autographs, Nike can make a few phone calls and force schools to return hundreds of items just because they want to maximize the visibility of their brand and justify the multi-million dollar deals with the schools.
Tickets for this Saturday's Alabama-Texas A&M game in College Station are going for an average of $763 on the secondary market, according to Forbes.
That's the highest average price for a regular season game in college football history.
It's easy to understand why.
Texas A&M also has the highest ticket prices in the country based on average median price, according to TicketCity.
Based on median ticket prices for both home and away games in 2012, Alabama ranked 1st overall and Texas A&M ranked 3rd.
In addition, this is the most talked-about Texas A&M team in a long time. While they've played top-10 teams at home a handful of times over the last few years, they haven't done it when they were also ranked high in the polls.
It's a perfect storm. You have two great teams with two of the five most hardcore fan bases in college football playing in a stadium that historically has the nation's highest ticket prices.
Nick Saban walked-out of a press conference after the media asked three questions relating to the recent allegations that former player DJ Fluker was paid by a middle man under the table while still at Alabama.
Saban started the media session with a three-minute statement, which included about 40 seconds relating to the article on Yahoo! that broke the story.
After being asked one question about the timing of the allegations, Saban ended his answer by saying, "I've made a statement, don't ask me anymore questions about this." Saban was then asked two questions about how he and the team have been impacted by the story. After expressing frustration over the questioning, Saban grabbed his water bottle, sarcastically thanked the media for their interest in this week's game, and then left.
Here is the video (the questions begin at the 1:25 mark; via AL.com)...
