2020 National Championship Picks and Predictions

This has been a strange season, to say the least, but it will end with two familiar powerhouses playing for the national championship tonight.

That’s right, our Ohio State Buckeyes are playing Alabama for the natty. Alabama is favored by 9 points according to ESPN

Here’s what your favorite amateur sportsblogyellers have to say about it:

LPW: I want Alabama to feel Clemson’s and Northwestern’s pain. Buckeyes all the way.

MNW: I earnestly believe Ohio State is one of the two best teams in the country. Unfortunately, the other team is Alabama, and the gulf between them appears to be pretty wide. Most of all, I’m just proud of us for all working so hard to make sure we could watch this game. Did some of us get covid? Sure, but isn’t it worth it to see two of the richest programs in college sports get exactly what they want all over again? Don’t you feel that sense of pride and accomplishment?

We really did it, everyone. We made it!

Now, when I still can’t go to a Northwestern game in person this fall because not enough people have been vaccinated and not enough restrictions have been lifted, I might be a little more jaded on the subject. And, I mean, it’s not like this game is, for a day, displacing a covid testing and vaccination center in what would have been one of the most spot on metaphors in American history. No, thank goodness, and congratulations to Alabama and Ohio State and, most of all, all of us. We really did it, everyone!

Beezer: Bama’s offense seems unstoppable during one of the rare years that the Bucks’s defense seems...beatable. That’s certainly not a great combination. Maybe with some turnover luck, ball protection, and long, sustained drives can keep the ball from Bama’s murderdeathkill offense long enough to pull out a win? Prob not. Either way...I”ll be lol-ing at something tomorrow morning.

MNW: Like, if this is something like a 49-38 Bama win in which Justin Fields hits a few of those ridiculous long balls and Mac Jones finds DeVonta Smith for, like, 4 TDs? that’s the ideal for me. Showcase just how good these two offenses are, give us a kind of redux of the SEC Championship game (since it looks like Bama’s D can be beat), and give me a reason to stay interested. No death slog to a 28-17 finish.

WSR: There’s going to be points, I’m just not sure if

a) tOSU can get enough Toradol from the wisconsin medical staff for Fields to be effective enough in the game and

b) If the Buckeyes can put together another perfect gameplan to stop a 2nd consecutive offensive machine. Bama is different from Clemson in that if there’s an injury to Najee Harris like there was to Travis Etienne, then they go to the next 5-star future destroyer of worlds on their roster while throwing to a collection of WRs that are disgustingly unfair.

I mean...shit. DeVonta Smith isn’t the best WR on this team and he just won the Heisman. And there’s talk that Jaylen Waddle will be back for tonight. How is this the same Alabama that played anti-football with Nick Saban just a few years ago? (The answer is “Lane Kiffin,” and thank you so very much Lane Kiffin for what you did for College Football).

If the Buckeyes have any chance at all, they’re going to need a defensive score, a few turnovers, and a perfect offensive game which includes using Sermon to grind clock and yards while getting some big plays out of the mangled corpse of Justin Fields. It’s a really big ask.

Jesse Collins: Congratulations College Football Playoffs, you got what you basically assumed you would get before this disaster of a season! Sure, you could have just staged bowl season at the beginning of this nonsense and had a similar outcome, but what fun would that be?

In all reality, Alabama probably should win this game going away. Not because Ohio State is without talent or is undeserving, but because Alabama’s offense is a somehow better version of last year’s LSU offense. Plus, you know, more talent everywhere. I think Fields - so long as his body responds to what his brain tells it to do which... we’ll see - is gonna get his. The Northwestern game notwithstanding - although, how good does that defense look now (or alternate take is how good is Olave really?) - Fields has been spectacular. All eyes will be on what he can do.

Prediction? I dunno. 52-33 Alabama? Feels random and right. Ohio State gets down a lot early, claws back and the final score gets exacerbated on something stupid late.

Green Akers: Underrated comment in this thread by WSR: Kiffykins showing Saban what was possible if he moved beyond Cro-Magnonball. Imagine a game between these two teams 10 years ago, and predicting the score would be in the high 30s at least; you’d have been laughed at.

Brian Gillis: I’m a little surprised so few people are giving Ohio State a chance in this one (Not here, but generally speaking). Has everyone forgotten the Clemson game already?

The key to the game for me: Assuming Justin Fields plays like the guy who tore apart Clemson and not the guy who looked a little out of sorts against Indiana and Northwestern – I think this game is decided up front. Ohio State’s front seven was the key to their dominating victory over Clemson and they’ll need to bring it again against Alabama. ‘Bama boasts an NFL offensive line, but I don’t think they’ve faced a defensive front as good as Ohio State’s this year. The Buckeyes’ secondary can be taken advantage of, so the Bucks will need their defensive front to be disruptive. If Ohio State can pressure Mac Jones and hold Najee Harris in check, I like the Buckeyes’ chances – because they’ll score. But if Jones has a clean pocket, it will be a long night for the Big Ten champs.

Bottom line: Easier said than done of course, but if Ohio State can win the battle in the trenches – I think the Bucks surprise the Tide.

StewMonkey13: This game and season is entirely emblematic of the American dream. Kids and coaches got sick, games were canceled, postponed, and moved. But by God, the rich need to get richer so here we are, Alabama and Ohio State.

Oh, you want insight? Fine, Tide Rolls. Fuck this is depressing.