Alabama Crimson Tide vs Georgia Bulldogs
- CFP National Championship
- Monday, January 10th, 8 pm ET
- Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis
Path to the final
Georgia cruised through the regular season this year, racking up an 8-0 run in the SEC conference and a 13-1 record overall, with 546 points scored compared to just 135 conceded.
It was a dominant regular season, but they were matched by their opponents in this year's final as Alabama also secured a memorable 13-1 overall record with a league-high 580 points scored and just 269 points conceded.
The Bulldogs' only defeat of the season? Of course, it came against Alabama just a month ago when they were well beaten 41-24 on the road. For Alabama, their only defeat of the season came when they took on Texas A&M back in October and were pipped 41-38 on the road.
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The coaches
Alabama's coach Nick Saban is already considered one of the best college football coaches of all time, with a record seven national championships to his name already including six with the Crimson Tide.
They won the championship last year and if they are successful in 2022, it will be the second time he has been able to navigate consecutive championship-winning seasons with the team.
This will be his tenth championship game, with his only two previous defeats coming against Clemson in 2016 and 2018.
Since joining Alabama he has an incredible winning record of 178-24, which includes a 9-2 record against Georgia (bettered only by Urban Meyer of any coach with at least five games against the Bulldogs).
In the other dugout will be Georgia's Kirby Smart, who has transformed this team into true contenders in four years. Having never reached the BCS Championship game before, they have featured in the game twice in the last four years while Smart has earned a 65-15 record as head coach.
In bad news for Georgia, the one thing he hasn't managed to be successful at yet is winning the National championship or won against Alabama, the team he was an assistant coach at between 2007 and 2015. He currently has a 0-4 record against the Tide.
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Back the Under!
The over/under for this game is set at 52.5 points total and the majority of things seem to point to this game hitting under that total... here's why:
The Bulldogs games this season have seen just six of 14 fixtures go over that mark, for a hit rate of just 42.9% this season. Alabama's games have hit the total mark in ten of 13 fixtures, but the defensive solidity of both of these teams makes it increasingly unlikely we'll see so many points.
Combined this season the two teams are averaging 28.8 points conceded, which is a huge 23.7 points under the total for this game. The average total points in a game including the Bulldogs this season is 50.8, which is also below the marker set.
This game is sure to be a close one because of the sheer importance of it and having played so recently on December 4th, both teams will have seen strengths and weaknesses and looked to tighten up ahead of this encounter.
You can get the under of 52.5 at a high of -112 with BetOnline sports betting.
And still...
The betting is all in favor of Georgia following their amazing season so far, but I personally can't look past the experience of Coach Saban and his record against the Bulldogs.
Match that together with the fact they beat them pretty convincingly a little over a month ago, it's hard to see just how much could have changed in that short period of time.
In offense they have the Bulldog's number and have the ability to score a boatload of points, punishing any small mistake that their opponents make. There will be nerves on both sides but one coach has been there, done it, and got the t-shirt while the other is under all the pressure in the world.
Ultimately, the Tide are the underdogs but the value is too good to ignore and I think they'll be able to claim back-to-back titles once again.
