I'm moving today, so I won't be around much. My apartment is infested with ladybugs, and so my wife and I are transferring to a new unit this weekend. Apparently such ladybug problems are not uncommon in North Carolina, but they didn't include it on the visitor brochures before I moved here two years ago.
Congratulations to Alabama. You always take a national title any way you can get one, but between Virginia Tech, Florida, and Texas, the Tide has a very nice collection of wins for the season. The tandem of Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson will be lethal next year. At least, more lethal than this year.
I've seen a quite a few people say that Texas would have won if Colt McCoy hadn't gotten injured. Well, I would disagree.
The simple fact is that we don't know what would have happened if McCoy doesn't go out. It easily could have been 14-0 without the injury, but Bama's defense is very stiff and could have kept it at 6-0 anyway. It's very unlikely that Alabama would have taken its foot off the gas to the same degree in the second half even with the same lead had McCoy not gotten hurt. Yes, Texas could have won with McCoy. Texas also could have won with Garrett Gilbert without the shovel pass or fumble return touchdown. We can play counterfactuals all day.
Ultimately though, it doesn't matter. No one gets a redo at these things no matter the circumstances.
The truism that you don't have to be the best team, only the best team on the field was completely evident last night. In fact, you don't even have to be the better team for the entire game since each team appeared to take a quarter or more off. Alabama's offense looked more like UAB in the third quarter, and the Tide's special teams were atrocious throughout.
The Alabama that played in the SEC Championship would have beat either of those teams last night soundly. I'm fairly confident in saying that the Florida that played in the Sugar Bowl would have defeated Alabama and smoked Texas last night. Heck, Ole Miss on a good day could have beat either of those teams the way they played in Pasadena.
Again, none of the what-if games matter. You get one shot at every game, and your task is to be the better of two teams at that date and time. Not the best in the nation, your conference, or even the best you can do as a team. As parity continues to set in throughout college football, it's important to keep that in mind.