With LSU vs. Alabama, College Football Playoff unofficially begins Saturday night

For all the Game(s) of the Century and Saban Bowls, all the SEC West battles and national championship showdowns, there’s never been an LSU-Alabama battle quite like the one about to unfold this weekend. The College Football Playoff effectively begins on Saturday night in Death Valley.

Alabama (6-2, 3-2 in SEC) travels to Baton Rouge to face LSU (6-2, 3-1) with, in all likelihood, a CFP playoff berth at stake. Though the two teams have identical records, Alabama ranked 11th in the first CFP bracket and LSU an also-receiving-votes 15th, primarily because of Alabama’s September victory over Georgia. But as that victory recedes further in the rear view, Alabama and LSU both need to avoid that crucial third loss.

The two teams have met 88 times since 1895, with Alabama leading the rivalry 56-27-6. No season defines the Alabama-LSU rivalry quite like 2011, when No. 1 LSU beat No. 2 Alabama 9-6 in the regular season … and then, thanks to the magic of upsets, voters, computers and the BCS, a rematch went Alabama’s way in January. Eight years later, with LSU and Alabama once again ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, the Tigers’ Joe Burrow outplayed the Tide’s Tua Tagovailoa, knocking Alabama out of the playoff hunt as part of LSU’s absolute domination of the 2019 college football season.

This year, the college football juggernauts are in Georgia and Oregon, not Alabama and Louisiana. The Tigers and Tide have both struggled with inconsistency and focus that led directly to their two losses. LSU fell in its debut game against what’s turned out to be a shoddy USC team, then dropped a battle for the SEC lead with Texas A&M. Alabama got beat up by the state of Tennessee, losing in an epochal upset to Vanderbilt and then running out of gas against the Volunteers.

Both coaches said all the right things in the…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-11-07 20:06:22

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