The top-ranked Crimson Tide face Clemson on Monday night in a College Football Playoff national championship game rematch. A victory would give Alabama five national championships in eight seasons, a feat never completed at the highest level of the sport during the poll era.

The Tide (14-0) can become the first FBS program to finish 15-0, along with the first to win four championships in span of six seasons, going back-to-back twice in that span.

A case can already be made that Alabama’s current run is the greatest in college football history. Better than Notre Dame back in the grainy black-and-white footage days of Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy. Better than Miami’s long run of dominance in the 1980s and early `90s. Better than anything Alabama did when Bear Bryant was leading the Tide in the 1960s and `70s.

Another title would give Saban six during the poll era that began in 1936, including a BCS crown at LSU in 2003, matching Bryant for the most of any major-college coach.

With one more championship, there will be no more college football dynasties left to compare to Saban’s.

”I mean, I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, an Alabama native who grew up worshipping Bryant and ended up playing for national championship Tide team in 1992. ”Every year is kind of that season of its own and you have your challenges, and it’s a journey of its own. But to be able to regroup and create that edge and meet those challenges, continue to manage your staff and your roster and compete at the highest level, I mean, it’s just unbelievable what has happened.”

Swinney and Saban held a joint news conference Sunday morning at the convention center in downtown Tampa. The same deal as last year, just in a different place.

Swinney’s team stands in the way of an Alabama championship again. The Tigers have not won a national title since 1981. As Swinney and his players have said over and over, it is the only box left for the program to check as it has taken a place among the elite in college football.

Heisman Trophy runner-up Deshaun Watson said he knew when he decided to come to Clemson in 2012 he was joining a program poised for big things.

”I felt the energy, I bought into what Coach Swinney was saying and what he thought the future was going to bring to this program and I wanted to be a part of it,” said Watson, a junior most certainly playing his last college game.

Clemson is working on a streak of six consecutive 10-win seasons, topped only by Alabama’s 10 straight.

Watson, the quarterback from Gainesville, Georgia, has been maybe the biggest reason why Clemson has become Alabama’s final and greatest challenge the last two seasons.

He was spectacular against the Tide in the title game last year with 478 total yards. Unable to stop Watson, Alabama used a surprising onside kick to swing the game its way and win 45-40.

The Crimson Tide defense enters the game ranked tops in the nation in total defense, rushing defense, yards per play allowed and points allowed. It is also responsible for 12 of the team’s stunning 15 non-offensive touchdowns.

Clemson, meanwhile, is coming off its best defensive effort for the season in a 31-0 Fiesta Bowl win against Ohio State.

The Tide has won 26 straight games. The Tigers are 27-2 the last two seasons.

”Frazier-Ali type of fight,” Alabama tight end O.J. Howard said. ”Two great teams, and we’re going to go at it and it’s going to be a great game Monday night.”

Howard added: ”We’re Ali.”

Things to know about Tide vs. Tigers II:

HURTS SO GOOD: Alabama’s Jalen Hurts could become the first true freshman quarterback to lead a team to the national championship since Jamelle Holieway did it with Oklahoma in 1985.

Hurts is coming off one of his worst games of the season. He was 7 for 14 for 57 yards against in a 24-7 victory against Washington in the Peach Bowl.

SARKISIAN’S DEBUT: Hurts will have to turn it around with a new offensive coordinator and play-caller. Former USC and Washington coach Steve Sarkisian takes over after spending the season in Tuscaloosa working as an analyst and aid to Lane Kiffin, who is now the head coach at Florida Atlantic. Saban made the change after the Washington game.

”So it’s really different, but I think we feel good about the situation we’re in, and we all think that he’ll do a great job come Monday,” Hurts said.

END OF AN ERA: Clemson won’t fade away after this season, but the Tigers are losing the core of a great team.

Mostly likely joining Watson as an early NFL draft entrant are receiver Mike Williams, a likely first-round pick, and leading rusher Wayne Gallman. Receiver Artavis Scott is also in the group the Swinney said he expects to leave early. The Tigers also will say goodbye to senior center Jay Guillermo and three defensive players who earned All-America honors in defensive tackle Carlos Watkins (second-team), linebacker Ben Boulware (third team) and cornerback Cordrea Tankersley (third team).

BEATING No. 1: This would be Clemson’s first victory over a team ranked No. 1 and would give the Tigers five victories against ranked opponents this season, the most in school history.

ROLLING VS. RANKED TEAMS: Alabama has won 16 straight games against ranked opponents, matching Southern California’s record streak during the Pete Carroll era (2001-09).

—

Follow Ralph D. Russo at www.Twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP

—

More college football at http://collegefootball.ap.org/ and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25 .

The post Alabama dynasty rolls into another champ game with Clemson appeared first on IdealCapper.

At least that’s what the record book shows.

Actually, an argument can be made that Saban already surpassed the man in the houndstooth hat.

Saban has five national titles – four as Alabama’s coach, plus a BCS crown at LSU – going into Monday night’s championship game against Clemson.

Paul ”Bear” Bryant is the only coach to win six championships during the poll era, but his mark comes with a very big asterisk.

Two of them, actually.

In 1964, with Joe Namath at quarterback, the Crimson Tide finished 10-0 during the regular season and was voted No. 1 in The Associated Press media poll as well as the coaches’ poll, both of which conducted their final tally before the bowls.

Alabama closed the season with a 21-17 loss to Texas in the Orange Bowl. If another poll has been conducted, Arkansas undoubtedly would have finished No. 1 with an 11-0 record that included a regular-season victory over Texas – the Longhorns’ only loss – and a Cotton Bowl triumph over Nebraska.

The real soft spot in Bryant’s record came nine years later.

While the AP began awarding its title after the bowls in 1965, largely because of what happened the season before, the coaches poll continued to be based strictly on the regular season.

Alabama was No. 1 in both polls after a perfect regular season in 1973, but the Crimson Tide lost to No. 2 Notre Dame 24-23 in a Sugar Bowl still remembered as one of college football’s landmark games. The Fighting Irish claimed the AP title, prompting the coaches poll to change its format the following year.

”Hey, any time you win a national championship, regardless of who puts you in there, you count it,” quipped Gene Stallings, who played for Bryant and is the only other Alabama coach to win a national championship in the modern era. ”I’m sure he counted it.”

Records aside, Saban said he’ll never surpass Bryant’s total body of work.

”I think Bear Bryant is probably the greatest coach that ever coached college football,” Saban said. ”That would be my vote, and it would stay that way for a long time, because he had success over a long, long period of time.”

Indeed, Bryant captured his first three national titles with an all-white team during the turbulent civil rights era of the 1960s, then three more after integration and a switch to the revolutionary wishbone offense in the early 1970s.

”The environment of college football changed dramatically during his time,” Saban said. ”He won championships running the wishbone, he won championships passing the ball. He effectively changed with whatever his players could do and whatever was required at the time.”

While hardly a driving force when it came to breaking down racial barriers, Bryant supposedly scheduled the 1970 season opener against Southern Cal – which featured African-American running back Sam Cunningham – to show the value of having black players.

”He had a great impact on integration of college football in the South, which may be his most significant accomplishment,” Saban said. ”A lot of those things that he accomplished, I don’t know that anyone else could provide the leadership that could match that.”

Bryant retired after the 1982 season with a then-record 323 wins. He died about a month later at the age of 69.

”I think coach Saban could’ve won back in coach Bryant’s era, and coach Bryant could’ve won in coach Saban’s era,” Stallings said. ”But to compare them? I don’t think you can do that.”

More than three decades after his death, Bryant’s presence still looms large over the Alabama program. The stadium in Tuscaloosa bears his name. Many fans continue wear Bear-style hats and other houndstooth attire to games. Most of the coaches that succeeded him struggled to deal with his enormous legacy.

Not Saban.

He has embraced Alabama’s history while carving out a dynasty that surpasses any of Bryant’s sustained runs of greatness .

Since the beginning of the 2008 season, Alabama has won 112 of 124 games. Of Saban’s four national titles, the only one that stirred any debate was in 2011, when the Crimson Tide lost to LSU at home during the regular season but got another shot at the Tigers in the Sugar Bowl.

A dominating 21-0 victory left little doubt about who was the best team in the country, but there are still some who think Alabama didn’t deserve a spot in the title game after failing to win its own conference.

Saban said he’s merely carrying on what Bryant started.

”If you want to talk about the success that he had, that’s rivaled by no one,” Saban said. ”He does loom large, and we’re happy for that because the things that he did created our opportunity to be successful because of the tradition he established at the University of Alabama.”

When it comes to who’s No. 1 at Alabama, Saban still goes with the Bear.

—

Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963 . His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/paul-newberry .

—

For more AP college football coverage: www.collegefootball.ap.org

The post Has Saban already surpassed the man in the houndstooth hat? appeared first on IdealCapper.

A victory by the Crimson Tide against Mississippi State on Saturday in Tuscaloosa would be Saban’s 40th when Alabama is ranked No. 1, matching Bobby Bowden and Woody Hayes for the most wins coaching an AP No. 1 team.

Saban is currently 39-5 in games when the Tide is No. 1. Bowden was 40-5 with Florida State as No. 1. Hayes went 40-6 with Ohio State. The difference? Bowden coached Florida State for 34 seasons. Hayes was at Ohio State for 28 years. Saban is in his 10th season with the Crimson Tide.

Alabama has been ranked No. 1 in 35 percent of its 124 games coached by Saban. Florida State was No. 1 in 10.8 percent of the 417 games Bowden coaches. Ohio State was No. 1 in 16.7 percent of the 276 games Hayes coached.

One more note on Alabama: The Crimson Tide’s game against Mississippi State will be its first against an unranked opponent since Oct. 1 versus Kentucky. Alabama became just the third top-ranked team to play and win four consecutive games against ranked opponents when it beat LSU last week.

In 1943, No. 1 Notre Dame played ranked opponents in four straight games and beat them all. In 2001, No. 1 Miami had a four-game winning streak against ranked opponents over a five-week span that included an open date.

The picks:

THURSDAY NIGHT THROWDOWNS

No. 15 North Carolina (minus 10+) at Duke

The Blue Devils need to win out to reach six wins and bowl eligibility, but the path is tough (at Pitt and at Miami after this week) … NORTH CAROLINA 38-30.

No. 13 Utah (minus 5) at Arizona State

The Utes hoped QB Troy Williams would give them more offensive balance this season, but he is ninth in the Pac-12 in passer efficiency rating (123.19) and has thrown only nine TD passes … UTAH 24-21.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS

Boston College (plus 21) at No. 20 Florida State

Just when it looked as if Seminoles RB Dalvin Cook was going to make a late Heisman push, he ran for 65 yards on 18 carries last week against N.C. State … FLORIDA STATE 38-10, BEST BET.

PLAYOFF IMPLICATIONS

Mississippi State (plus 30) at No. 1 Alabama

Matchup of the top two rushing quarterbacks in the SEC; the Bulldogs’ Nick Fitzgerald has 839 yards and eight touchdowns and the Tide’s Jalen Hurts has 635 yards and 10 scores. …. ALABAMA 35-14.

No. 2 Michigan (minus 22) at Iowa

The Wolverines’ first road game against a team with a conference victory … MICHIGAN 31-13.

Pittsburgh (plus 21) at No. 3 Clemson

The Panthers’ pass defense has been a major issue all season – and now here comes Deshaun Watson … CLEMSON 42-17.

Southern California (plus 9) at No. 4 Washington

The Trojans have won five straight since a tough start to the season and have scored at least 41 points in four of the games … WASHINGTON 35-28.

Wake Forest (plus 34+) at No. 5 Louisville

Cardinals QB Lamar Jackson is 247 yards passing away from becoming the eighth FBS player with at least 3,000 yards passing and 1,000 yards rushing … LOUISVILLE 45-7.

No. 6 Ohio State (minus 29) at Maryland

The Terps are coming off a blowout at Michigan and it is unclear how much QB Perry Hills (shoulder) will be able to play … OHIO STATE 42-17.

CONFERENCE CALLS

Illinois (plus 26) at No. 7 Wisconsin

The Badgers have allowed five touchdown passes, tied for the second fewest in the FBS … WISCONSIN 31-7.

No. 8 Auburn (minus 10+) at Georgia

No SEC team throws fewer passes per game than Auburn at 22.3 … AUBURN 28-20.

No. 25 Baylor (plus 15) at No. 9 Oklahoma

The Bears are trying to avoid their first three-game losing streak since 2012 … OKLAHOMA 52-28.

Mississippi (plus 10) at No. 10 Texas A&M

Matchup of backup quarterbacks after injuries … TEXAS A&M 35-23.

No. 11 West Virginia (plus 2) at Texas

The Longhorns have the second most rushing touchdowns in the Big 12 with 24; the Mountaineers have allowed the fewest rushing TDs in the Big 12 with seven … TEXAS 31-27.

No. 12 Penn State (minus 7) at Indiana

The Hoosiers are 1-18 against the Nittany Lions since Penn State joined the Big Ten … INDIANA 28-24.

No. 16 Colorado (minus 16) at Arizona

The Wildcats have lost six straight and haven’t lost seven in a row since 2004 … COLORADO 31-13.

Texas Tech (plus 13) at No. 17 Oklahoma State

Better budget some time for this one: Red Raiders QB Patrick Mahomes and Cowboys QB Mason Rudolph combine to average 764 yards passing per game … OKLAHOMA STATE 49-35.

Georgia Tech (plus 15) at No. 18 Virginia Tech

Seven of the last eight meetings have been one-score games, and the Hokies have won five of them … VIRGINIA TECH 28-21.

No. 19 LSU (minus 3) at Arkansas

After facing Alabama, Leonard Fournette gets a crack at the worst run defense in the SEC … LSU 33-24.

Minnesota (plus 8) at No. 21 Nebraska

The Cornhuskers are hoping to get QB Tommy Armstrong (concussion) back for what amounts to an elimination game in the Big Ten West … MINNESOTA 27-23, UPSET SPECIAL.

South Carolina (plus 11+) at No. 22 Florida

The Gamecocks could win the SEC East at 4-4 with some help … SOUTH CAROLINA 17-14.

California (plus 15) at No. 23 Washington State

The Bears have won 10 of 11 meetings … WASHINGTON STATE 52-21.

No. 24 Boise State (minus 17+) at Hawaii

The Broncos have won the last five meetings by a combined 45-7 … BOISE STATE 35-14.

TWITTER REQUESTS

Appalachian State (plus 1) at Troy (at)matthewepley

Two of the three Sun Belt teams, along with Arkansas State, that are undefeated in conference … APPALACHIAN STATE 27-24.

Kentucky (plus 13+) at Tennessee – (at)WClark840WHAS

Instead of trying to determine a winner in the SEC East, maybe they should all join forces to face the West champion in Atlanta … TENNESSEE 27-21.

Rutgers (plus 13+) at Michigan State – (at)jamdraper

An unexpected battle for last place in the Big Ten East. At least it was unexpected for the Spartans … MICHIGAN STATE 28-14.

Stanford (minus 3) at Oregon – (at)sylvioso

The Cardinal and Ducks have combined to win the last seven Pac-12 championships, but this year’s meeting is mostly about whether Oregon coach Mark Helfrich can manage to keep his job … STANFORD 37-33.

—

Record: Last week 20-5 straight; 10-15 vs. points.

Season: 149-57; 93-108-3.

Upset specials: 3-7.

Best bets: 1-9.

—

Follow Ralph D. Russo at www.Twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP

—

AP’s college football website: www.collegefootball.ap.org

The post AP COLLEGE FOOTBALL PICKS: Another milestone for Saban appeared first on IdealCapper.