Robert Mayer-USA TODAY Sports
The BCS Championship seemed so far away after the conclusion of the exciting SEC Championship Game between Alabama and Georgia. Now only days away from kicking off in Miami, the players have arrived in the Sunshine State, fans have arrived or will arrive in the next couple of days in South Beach and the excitement surrounding is at an all-time high.
We know fans will be going to this game, but most will be gathering around TVs watching the game on ESPN. Do you need another reason to watch this game? Well, even if you don’t, we are going to give you 3 reasons why this game needs your complete and undivided attention Monday:
1. There is nothing else on TV on Monday night.
Coming from my education in TV and my experience (as brief as it has been), there’s one thing I’ve picked up on when it comes to hyped-up events, especially live sports: Expect to lose the night. That why there will not be much on during primetime when January 7th rolls around. Why? Partially for the reason above and partially because of timing.
See, most networks and cable channels are in their mid-season break and will re-air episodes you have probably already watched. CBS will be the only network, however, that will still be in this period while the other networks will be just starting to get their season up and rolling Monday night. DVR it! That’s why it’s there.
There also is this thing that has been around for over 30 years called the Internet. You can rewatch these episodes later on the each of the network’s sites as most of them will have it available next day. And don’t even try to convince me or yourself that you will watch Anderson Cooper 360 instead of Amari Cooper.
2. This is the best matchup in the SEC National Championship Dynasty era.
As much as most want to think that Alabama or Notre Dame has the edge in this game and will dominate the other team, that simply will not be the case. Both teams are going to be ready and are led by arguably the two most disciplined coaches in college football. This is the best matchup that Alabama, much less any SEC team, has seen in a BCS National Championship Game.
As much as people want to put Alabama on a pedestal above Notre Dame, this team isn’t the dominating, overwhelming team everybody wants to make them out to be. The Texas A&M loss and the LSU win showed some of its weaknesses as a team on both sides of the ball. As much as Bama fans want to ridicule the fact that Notre Dame almost lost to BYU and Pitt, they managed to overcome adversity where Alabama couldn’t.
That’s not to say Alabama will be outmatched. Notre Dame still has some questions on defense as to whether they can handle one of the nation’s best scoring offense and whether they can get past Alabama’s D-Line on the other side of the ball. All this makes for one of the most evenly-matched BCS National Championship games we’ve seen in quite a while.
3. The SEC’s 6-straight title streak is on the line.
It’s no secret that fans outside of the 14 SEC schools want somebody from another conference (or no conference, as it were) to beat the SEC. Those fans absolutely despise the SEC and it’s success in nabbing the last six BCS Titles from teams in the Big 10, Big 12 and the Pac-12. It didn’t help things at all that two SEC teams played in the championship game last year.
Now, with two seasons left of the current BCS system, Notre Dame is one of the nation’s last shot in taking down the big bad SEC. It’s developed into an “Us versus Them” mentality where everybody will be wanting Notre Dame to beat Alabama and take down the SEC. Which is very awkward to say considering the number of fans that wanted Notre Dame to lose during the season.
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