If the first meeting of the season between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the LSU Tigers was the "Game of the Century," we aren't sure what else we can call this one. On January 9th, we might be witnessing one of the greatest college football betting battles of all-time at the Louisiana Superdome, where the No. 1 Bayou Bengals will look to banish the No. 2 Crimson Tide for the second time this year.
Trying to figure out which of these teams is really the better one is like splitting hairs. Both have offenses that don't really average the most yards in the world, but that get the job done with a balanced attack and find ways to sneakily drop 30+ points on virtually everyone that they face. They can both hit the deep ball with some talented receivers, and both have rushing games that have gashed some of the best in the land.
The defenses are both out of this world. Alabama ranks No. 1 in literally every single category, allowing just over 190 yards per game to go with a simply insane scoring average of 8.8 points per game allowed. The Bayou Bengals are No. 2 in total defense and No. 2 in total scoring.
The first time around, the final score ended up being 9-6 in overtime in favor of the Tigers, but we know that if not for three missed field goals, the Tide would have walked away with the win and would probably be favored by more points in this game. That being said, one could argue that even had Alabama won that game by a 12-6 or other comparable margin, that the difference will be made up in the home field advantage that the Tide won't have in the Superdome.
If there is one difference maker of a player on the field, it is RB Trent Richardson. Richardson can do just about everything, and he put up numbers this year that were comparable to those of RB Mark Ingram from his Heisman Trophy campaign two years ago. Of course, LSU has its Heisman Trophy finalist on the other side of the ball as well in DB Tyrann Mathieu, who blew up in the last two weeks of the year, making play after play defensively and coming up with some massive plays on special teams to help out his team's cause.
Whereas the slight nod of best players has to go to Alabama in our opinion, there is not a shadow of a doubt that the Tigers played the better schedule. The Crimson Tide's top win out of conference came against the Penn State Nittany Lions on the road. Not only did the Bayou Bengals have a win over a very comparable West Virginia Mountaineers team on the road, but they also beat the Oregon Ducks on a neutral field as well. The Ducks only suffered one more loss over the course of the season and were good enough to play in the BCS National Championship Game for a second straight season. LSU also had to play a Georgia team that had won 10 games in a row before coming to Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game, a game which Alabama totally dodged.
The argument could be made, regardless of whether LSU wins or loses this game, that its win at Bryant Denny Stadium, no matter how aided it was by poor Alabama special teams, would be good enough to give a team that won 13 games this season at least a share of the National Championship. The Bayou Bengals, with a win, would be 14-0 and have wins over four teams that were ranked in the Top 3 in the land when they played them (Alabama twice, Arkansas, and Oregon). There would be no other teams in the history of college football that pulled off such a feat, and it would be one that would truly be celebrated for decades, as it may be an accomplishment that is never repeated.
However, back on the field, we just can't separate these two. The Tigers were five point favorites the first time around and probably should have lost by a margin that looked something like that. Now, they are one point underdogs at Bookmaker.eu in spite of the fact that they have been the undisputed No. 1 team in the country for three straight sets of BCS rankings and three straight sets of rankings in the human polls as well. LSU opened up at -3 when the spread for the BCS National Championship Game first opened, but that number quickly moved in favor of Alabama. The 'total' has been set at 40, and the number has been anywhere from 39.5 as high as 41.5 in spite of the fact that the first meeting easily stayed 'under' the 'total' even with overtime.
5Dimes Sportsbook won't just have all of the spreads and 'totals' for the game, quarters, and halves, but it will also have a National Championship prop sheet like you won't find at any other sportsbook. Join today and make sure to take advantage of all that 5Dimes has to offer for this and the rest of the fantastic bowl games on the schedule for the rest of the 2011-12 bowl season!
