BCS National Championship 2013 -- Alabama 28, Notre Dame 0: One Half Closer to the Seventh National Title

The first-half statistics in the BCS National Championship Game are impressive enough, but the numbers might be underselling the margin, if anything. Quite frankly, Notre Dame has yet to prove there is any reason to believe they're playing on the same level as Alabama. This is a blowout in the making.

The vulnerable Alabama secondary? It doesn't look so vulnerable right now, though some of that can probably be blamed on the Notre Dame passing attack. But there have also been some impressive plays. The "strength-on-strength" matchup between the Notre Dame front seven and the Tide's offensive line has not looked like much of a contest. Manti Te'o has been a nonentity. A.J. McCarron has looked great and Eddie Lacy has been unstoppable.

Have there been a couple of controversial calls in this game? Yes. But you would be hard-pressed to say there have been 28 points of bad calls. How much they might have contributed to the snowball effect for Notre Dame is one thing, but teams that are in the national championship are not supposed to let things like that get to them.

If there's a way to get back in this game for Notre Dame, I have trouble seeing it. They need better protection for Everett Golson, for one, but Nick Saban and Kirby Smart would be well-served to press their advantage now and continue the rout. Notre Dame also has to find some way to stop the Tide's offense, which has looked incredibly impressive this year.

The SEC's seventh consecutive national title is not in hand yet. But unless something changes dramatically and relatively quickly, Alabama is going to score perhaps the most decisive win of the streak so far.