Alabama again favored to beat Clemson with national title on the line

ESPN ^ | December 30, 2018 | David Purdum

[C19fan]

Alabama and Clemson will meet in the CFP National Championship for the third time in the past four years, and the Crimson Tide are again the favorites.

Alabama has been installed as a six-point favorite over Clemson in the championship game on Jan. 7 (ESPN, 8 p.m. ET) in Santa Clara, California.

[C19fan]

The Over/Under is 61.

[allendale]

Over $50 million dollars will be generated by that game. How much will the “student athletes”, many of whom will incur during their “careers” life long debilitating injuries and afflictions, see of that money.

[southernerwithanattitude]

The SEC Championship game was the National Championship game.

[BBB333]

“allendale, phone call from DU on line one...allendale, phone call from DU on line one...”

[a little elbow grease]

Alabama is phenomenal, but Clemson and QB Lawrence are excellent too, especially Trevor Lawrence.

It should be a great,great game.

Personally, I won't be rooting for either over the other. I like them both too much to root one way or the other.

For you Tigers and Tide fans ............ have a good game ...... one not to ever be forgotten.

[wrcase]

Why do consider people getting paid for their effort a DU thing?

[wrcase]

Why do you consider people getting paid for their effort a DU thing?

[Codeflier]

You must be fun at parties. Try to lighten up and enjoy life more.

[JonPreston]

I’m going with Notre Dame this year. Any team that can play 5 ACC games each year while avoiding being a member of the conference thereby avoiding a conference title game (which would have been against Clemson) deserves to be top dog.

[a little elbow grease]

"A betting line on a potential title game rematch between Alabama and Clemson has been available for two months. In November, the SuperBook at the Westgate Las Vegas opened the Crimson Tide as 8.5-point favorites over Clemson."

___________

Giving eight and a half points to a team with Trevor Lawrence as their QB seems a little hazardous.

[RayChuang88]

If Clemson can play with an offense like what happened yesterday, they might be able to stay with Alabama. Clemson is one of the very few teams that can pose a threat to Alabama—only Georgia in the SEC can do that.

[mostly_lies]

Having gone to Alabama, and known several football players, some of whom I was good friends with (I was not good enough as an athlete to play on that kind of team!), I can tell you that EVERY ONE OF THEM knows the physical price they may pay. Very few of them expect to play pro ball. They do it for the experience, the pride, the sense of achievement. I know a guy who blew his knee out and said flat out “I will have a gimp leg the rest of my life.” I also know that almost none of the ones who pay a physical price would do anything differently.

There is a price for anything that is worth anything. They go into it eyes wide open, and are proud of their achievements, and are not squawking about not making any money. That is, most of them are not like whiney complainers who b**ch about the money in athletics.

I admire them. They are phenomenal athletes and watching people at the apex of whatever field they work in is a thing of wonder.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Line opened with Bama at -6 point favorites.

[fso301]

Over $50 million dollars will be generated by that game. How much will the “student athletes”, many of whom will incur during their “careers” life long debilitating injuries and afflictions, see of that money.

That kind of money is consistently generated by few teams for only brief intervals.

Time will eventually run out for Nick Saban and the team may then suffer years of lackluster performance. What should the team do if it can't make payroll?

Then there is the matter of Title IX. Revenue from football and men's basketball has to finance women's sports.

[Yo-Yo]

They will receive every penny they agreed to when they signed up to play. Many, if not a majority of the players aren't even on scholarship.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Over $50 million dollars will be generated by that game. How much will the “student athletes”, many of whom will incur during their “careers” life long debilitating injuries and afflictions, see of that money.

Well, they do get a full-ride scholarship to a university, so it's not like they're completely uncompensated. And I think relatively few will make it through their college playing career with any lasting injuries.

But you're absolutely right that college football generates far more for major powers like Alabama than it does for the players themselves. Each player needs to weigh the pros and cons.

[allendale]

Perhaps you should talk to those former athletes again when they are thirty five or forty. It would be interesting to do a study and see how their lives turned out compared to their non athlete fellow students. It seems ridiculous that huge amounts of money is being made by others based on the performance and sacrifices of these young people. You can’t believe that an 17 yo recruit understands the full picture. The coach that recruits and supervises his career certainly does.

[BBB333]

“Why do (you?) consider people getting paid for their effort a DU thing?”

The poster came off to me as plain ol’ bitchin’

College sports are NON professional, mind you. They should stay that way.

[wrcase]

Unfortunately, a lot of players get worthless degrees in things like General Studies or Leisure Studies. I remember when the commentators, when announcing the starting lineups, would announce the player’s major. They don’t do that anymore. I’m hoping if the XFL gets off the ground that they recruit top high school players who have no interest in pretending to be a student so that the player has a play for pay option, much like baseball.

[RetiredArmy]

Uh, no. This is the NC game. The SEC game was only the first step.