BY: Andrew Edwards
In case you forgot, Alabama and Clemson have played each other in the past three college football playoffs. Not much is going to stop that from happening again this year.
According to ESPN’s playoff simulator, Clemson has an 83 percent chance to reach the playoff for the fourth straight year. Meanwhile, Alabama has a 71 percent chance to do the same thing. Did I mention that both teams return nearly their entire offense and retool each defense respectively with five-star talent? I would have to say that this predictor seems pretty accurate.
For the 2019 season, Clemson’s schedule ranks 56th-hardest among FBS teams, while Alabama ranks 30th in the same category.
The real question is: Who exactly is going to challenge these two titans?
In the ACC, there really seem to be no contenders for the Tigers. Miami’s acquisition of Tate Martell will certainly give them a boost. However, outside of this, it’s really hard to imagine anyone really challenging Clemson within their own conference.
Alabama, on the other hand, seems to really only be challenged by their early November matchup with LSU. This could potentially be a top-10 matchup, the real challenge for Alabama probably wouldn’t come until a possible SEC championship matchup with Georgia for the third straight year.
Outside of these two teams, it appears that Georgia and Ohio State will have the best chance to dethrone Clemson and Alabama as the two best teams in CFB. Georgia seems to have the best chance out of anyone as they would have to directly play Alabama before the playoff. However, they do have to play two potential top 10 teams before Alabama in Notre Dame and Florida. The path is there for Georgia, but the road will be much more difficult than Alabama.
These two teams could certainly be dethroned for the 2019, but as it stands, I certainly wouldn’t bet on it.
