The Alabama Crimson Tide and Clemson Tigers meet Monday night in Tampa, Florida, to face off in the College Football Playoff championship game. The natural question is if the No. 2 Tigers will be able to upset the seemingly unstoppable No. 1 Crimson Tide, who have lost only one game in the past two seasons and have 16 championships to their name, including four under current coach Nick Saban. If Alabama indeed wins on Monday, they will boast a 27-game victory streak, the 10th longest since World War II, The New York Times reports.
The championship is a rematch of last year's nail-biter, in which Clemson fell to Alabama 45-40 after an undefeated 2015 season. "We're close," said Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson. "We've done so much together. But the king is still the king until someone knocks him off his throne. What they have done is what we all want to do. It's the last thing left that we haven't done together. Win the national championship."
Clemson has only claimed one national championship, back in 1981, and has not won against Alabama since 1905 (they've lost to the Tide 13 straight times). But "Clemson might be the only team in college football that can beat Alabama," CBS college football commentator Gary Danielson told The New York Times, although he admitted "I don't think they will."
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Not everyone predicts the Tide's cakewalk to victory: Four of SB Nation's staff writers picked a Clemson win, as did five of seven CBS Sports writers and five of seven at Sports Illustrated.
"The two best teams are here," Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney told ESPN. "I don't think there's any question about that."
Kickoff is at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN, and can be streamed live at WatchESPN.
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