COLLEGE FOOTBALL’S SURPRISE: OHIO STATE EXACTS REVENGE AND EARNS A SHOT AT ALABAMA

 

What goes around comes around, the old saying

goes and it applies to the college football playoffs. On January 11, Ohio State challenges top ranked Alabama in the national championship game in Miami. The contest teems with redemption and revenge story lines.  Ohio State punched its ticket by winning the  Sugar Bowl New Year’s night over Clemson, 49-28, avenging a narrow, painful

semifinal loss to the Tigers last year. Earlier in the day, Alabama won the Rose Bowl, 31-14, over Notre Dame. The Crimson Tide now seeks to avenge an embarrassing defeat in the finals two years ago.

Ohio State’s stunning shellacking of an uncharacteristically out-of-sorts Clemson team prevented a fifth episode of the Clemson-Alabama playoff series. The teams had met in four of the last five playoffs, with Clemson winning twice (after the 2016 and 2018 seasons) and Alabama twice (after the 2015 and 2017 seasons). The 2015 and 2016 games went to the wire. Each team had a convincing win in the other two games. Many looked forward to a rubber match this year, but now it won’t happen.

 

The Tide rolls

No doubt ever existed about the outcome of the

Alabama-Notre Dame semifinal, technically the Rose Bowl. Because of COVID restrictions, playoff officials moved the game from Pasadena, California to  AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas (a/k/a Jerry World).

Alabama scored on its first three possessions, then kept Notre Dame at bay. Though Notre Dame has improved its lines of scrimmage from earlier post season games when Alabama simply manhandled the Irish, the Tide’s superior speed and playmaking ability made this game no contest.

Alabama may have had better defensive teams,  but its 2020 offense is probably coach Nick Saban’s

best ever. Two players, receiver DeVonta Smith and quarterback Mac Jones, made the Heisman Trophy final four list and a third, running back Nanjee Harris finished fifth. A team with that kind of fire power presents a multitude of problems for

any defense and Notre Dame was no exception. Alabama methodically destroyed Notre Dame’s hopes, rolling up 437 yards of total offense in the process.

Ohio State shocks Clemson

After Clemson easily defeated Notre Dame in

the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game, many college football observers believed Clemson had sent a message that the Tigers were ready to claim their third national championship in five years. Instead, Ohio State played with a monster-sized chip on its shoulder and destroyed the proud Tigers from South Carolina. No team ever gave an opponent more motivation.

To begin with, Ohio State felt it was robbed in last year’s 29-23 semifinal loss. Several critical officiating calls went against the Buckeyes, especially a fumble recovered and returned for a touchdown that was then called an

incomplete  pass.  Second, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney voted Ohio State 11^th on his coaches’ poll ballot. Swinney contended the vote wasn’t about Ohio State, but only reflected his view that teams that didn’t play a full schedule didn’t deserve a top ten ranking (Ohio State played only six games because of COVID issues). Nevertheless, it’s difficult to imagine any better bulletin board material, especially for a team already nursing a grudge. Ohio State’s anger fueled a 21-unanswered- points outburst in the second quarter. Clemson never really threatened again. Whenever the Tigers crept closer, Ohio State torched the Clemson defense in return.

 

Ohio State – Alabama

Alabama opened as a seven-point favorite for the championship game. Whether Ohio State can threaten Alabama likely depends on intangibles that may not emerge until game time. Ohio State has weapons, especially

quarterback Justin Fields who regained his touch in the Clemson game. He’d been a strong pre-season Heisman candidate, but had an ordinary year and dropped out of the conversation. Mistake plagued outings against

Indiana and in the Big 10 championship game against  Northwestern drew criticism. Against Clemson, however, he passed for 385 yards and six touchdowns, and demonstrated complete command of the Buckeye offense.

Ohio State controlled Clemson’s superstar

quarterback, Trevor Lawrence, the dead cinch number one pick in the upcoming NFL draft. Lawrence threw for 400 yards, but never seemed in rhythm. Some will blame that on the absence of play-caller/offensive coordinator Tony Elliot, who missed the game because of COVID protocols. When a team loses by three touchdowns, blaming it on the absence of one assistant coach seems a bit much, especially when its defense never stopped the opposition. Can the Buckeyes similarly handle the multi-faceted Alabama offense? Maybe, but nobody else has this year.

Ohio State has nothing to avenge against Alabama. Few expect Ohio State will win, so the Buckeyes could be playing with house money. Except for the mere fact they’re on the national championship stage, no reason exists for the appearance of anything other than a loose, relaxed Ohio State team on January 11.

Alabama, however, has some unfinished

business. The Tide hasn’t won a national championship since the 2017 season (Alabama beat Clemson, 24-6, in the semifinals that year). The next year, Clemson humiliated Alabama in the title game, 44-16. As  for the 2019 season, for the first

time Alabama didn’t even make the four-team playoff. All that seems motivation enough for Alabama to take care of Ohio State this time around.    

THE SUPER BOWL: SPORT and SPECTACLE

It’s Super Bowl week, offering an  opportunity for contemplating the upcoming game and what the Super Bowl  means in our culture. It’s only a football game, but over the time of its existence – this year’s game is the 53^rd edition (LIII, the National Football League insists) – it has become a national gathering event, bringing more people together for one activity than nearly anything else in American society.

Pro Football: Television Juggernaut 

Well over 100 million Americans annually watch the Super

Bowl.  With NFL television ratings up during the 2018 regular season, this year’s game might eclipse the record of 114 million viewers set in 2015 for Seattle’s gut wrenching loss to New England (yes, the Seahawks still should have handed Marshawn Lynch the ball). The NFL has had its ratings challenges recently, thanks mostly to the national anthem controversy and President Trump’s posturing. Concern about head injuries and brain damage for players may also have reduced interest in the game. High powered offenses, however, led by young quarterbacks like Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes, Houston’s DeShaun Watson, Baker Mayfield in Cleveland, and Jared Goff of the Los Angeles Rams, apparently helped bring fans back.

Have doubts about pro football’s dominance of the American sports landscape? This year, 46 of the 50 most watched telecasts – of any kind – between September and December were NFL games.  Also, just consider television viewership for professional sports in the United States. Major

League Baseball, once the national pastime, drew an average of 14.3 million viewers for the five games of the 2018 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Boston Red Sox. The four games of the 2018 National Basketball Association Finals drew an average of 17.5 million viewers. Even the scintillating seven game series between Cleveland and Golden State in 2017 averaged only 20.3 million. 

The Super Bowl: National Gathering Spot

The massive viewership results from more than pro football’s overwhelming popularity. The NFL wouldn’t get the massive number of people watching the big game had it not realized the need for marketing the contest to casual fans, especially women. In 2017 nearly half (47%) the Super Bowl’s viewers were women. By making the game a family or couple attraction, the NFL has gotten past its core viewership. With the Super Bowl telecast about a lot more than football, the NFL garners an audience of both casual fans and hard core football fanatics.

How’d the NFL do this? Start with the television  commercials.  Go to any office the day after the Super Bowl and it’s common to find as much or more talk about the commercials as the game itself. Advertisers, who this year will pay a little over $5 million for a thirty second ad, ramp up their creative efforts so they can get a buzz from their Super Bowl spots.

Another innovation that attracts casual fans has been big name musical acts as the half-time entertainment. Now, instead of marching bands, we get the Rolling Stones, Madonna, Janet Jackson (wardrobe malfunction no extra charge), or Beyonce. This year’s performers are Maroon 5, a three-time Grammy-award winning pop-rock band particularly attractive to millennials, and rapper Travis Scott. He agreed he’d appear only after the NFL pledged it would give his favorite charity $500,000.

                       

Finally,through year-round  adverting, the  NFL's food and beverage sponsors encourage gathering of fans for Super Bowl parties.  Each of us, for example, annually attend Super Bowl parties, often with people we otherwise see only a few other times a year. The NFL marketing machine now influences our social meeting habits.  Perhaps members of Congress might try getting together at a Super Bowl party.

What about this Year’s Game?

Marketing, sociology, and economics notwithstanding, they will play a football game Sunday, February 3, in Atlanta. Five-time Super Bowl winner New England and its relentless duo of coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady meet the upstart Los Angeles Rams, led by wunderkind Sean McVay, the youngest-ever Super Bowl head coach, and young gun quarterback Goff.

The Rams probably have the better team, but Brady and     

Belichick are awfully hard to beat, especially  by inexperienced players and coaches. They demonstrated that in the AFC championship game when, for a while, the Patriot defense confused Mahomes and Brady surgically carved up the game, but fatigued, talent-challenged Kansas City defense.

The two championship games, both of which went into  overtime, raised the possibility officiating or the NFL’s overtime rules could decide the Super Bowl game. Los Angeles reached the Super Bowl with a mighty assist in the NFC championship game from the horrific miss of a

blatant pass interference penalty late in their win over New Orleans. Could such an abomination decide pro football’s championship? Of course it could. New England outlasted Kansas City in part because the Patriots won the overtime coin toss, took the ball, and scored. Mahomes and the explosive Kansas City offense never saw the field. Just saying, but under the college overtime rule, each team gets a turn with the ball. Just saying.

In any event, the game will captivate a lot of the country until it’s played. When it’s over we’ll start talking about the April NFL draft, June organized team activities (OTAs), July training camps, September’s start to the 2019 regular season, and next year’s Super Bowl. The NFL has this figured out, doesn’t it?