The Blue Board

I want ND to win and I think they will win.

I think ND's defense is best in the country and that is going to win the game for them, and the refs of course.

I want Alabama to win. And as one of the only teams to play both, pretty sure we can say first hand that Alabama is a much better team. We were in the game against ND and we weren't even in the same stadium as Alabama. Bama wins by 20

As a Bama Fan I thought there would be more Fans wanting Notre Dame to Win. Seems like 80% of America wants someone other than SEC Team to win it this Year.

I hope Bane shows up to liberate both fanbases.

Unfortunately though, I think Bama will win. I will admit that I've only seen like two ND games this year though.

I want Notre Dame to win. Not just because Alabama is Alabama, but I don't like any SEC team winning 3 titles in 4 years, no matter who it is. Just makes life harder for everyone.

But I think Alabama will win.

Notre Dame appears (12-0) to have a pretty darn good team. And if Golson continues his improvement throwing the ball, they have a chance. If you can throw the ball, you have a shot against Alabama (see LSU's one good passing game, and Georgia).

But I do wonder just how good Notre Dame is.

The win at Oklahoma is a good one. But the next best win is Stanford. And while Stanford is a tough, physical, quality football team, I don't think they are as good as their 11-2 record. Three wins by 4 points or less and two others in OT...they could pretty easily be 8-4 right now. Stanford's yards-per-play on offense is 5.5 and their yards-per-play on defense is 4.7. That kind of ratio is found on teams that are somewhere between 6-6 and 8-4.

Aside from those two wins, they also have 3 point wins over Purdue (6-6) and BYU (8-5), as well as the 3OT win against Pitt (6-6). I also thought the wins over USC, Michigan State, Boston College, and Michigan weren't very impressive. They won, but those games ended up being against teams with records of 7-5, 6-6, 2-10, and 8-4.

All decent wins, but coming from a national championship caliber team, you'd expect those wins to look more dominating like Alabama's wins against Ole Miss (33-14), Michigan (41-14), and Mississippi State (38-7).

If Notre Dame is going to win, it will be like Ohio State beating Miami in 2002. OSU played a lot of close games that year, while Miami was destroying anyone and everyone. But the Buckeyes kept it close, just like they did all year, and found a way to win. The only way Notre Dame wins is by doing the same thing. Somehow manage to keep it close, just like they've done most of the year, and then hope the defense has a couple big plays in them, hope that Alabama has a few screw-ups in them, and then win a close one.

Otherwise it's Alabama 38-17.

Bama...I'd rather Bama win 10 in a row then the Domers 1

I'm not someone that thinks an SEC schedule is automatically harder than anyone elses....but how do you figure Notre Dame played a tougher schedule?

Going into the year it seemed that way, but when Michigan State turned out to be 6-6 and USC turned out to be 7-5, I don't see how it was all that tough of a schedule. Not easy, but no tougher than Alabama's I don't think.

Games against teams with 7+ wins:
UA - 6
ND - 7

Games against teams with 9+ wins:
UA - 3
ND - 2

Games against ranked teams:
UA - 4
ND - 3

Games against Top 10 teams:
UA - 3
ND - 1

And those numbers are what make the ND strength of schedule tougher in SOS rankings, which I understand.

But when we're talking about great teams, I think of schedule strength in regards to who you played that actually had any prayer of challenging you. Does it matter if Alabama played Florida Atlantic and Notre Dame played 2-10 Boston College? Or if Alabama played Western Carolina and Notre Dame played Wake Forest?

I mean, I know it matters on a computer's SOS calculation, but when I want to see the strength of the schedule you faced to get to 12-0 or 12-1, I want to see who you beat that suggests your record means something.

So yeah, I won't argue that Notre Dame technically had a harder average in SOS, but at the same time I suspect Alabama was challenged more often by teams with talent that was in the same universe.

Being an Ohio State fan...this Notre Dame team remind you of your 2002 Buckeyes at all?

I'll answer that after the national championship game.

Tommy Rees will not play 3.25 quarters against Alabama.

Before 1/7/2013 ND = Talented team with emerging QB and great D
Post 1/7/2013 ND = Exposed

Finishing 12-1 is a very good season, so keep your head up ND fans

For most people, this is simply picking which team you hate the least.