Notre Dame vs Alabama Game Time: 3 Best Reasons to Turn into Epic Game

The BCS National Championship is going to be a fantastic display of defense, grit and teams that know how to win. This should put a fitting end to another wonderful college football season. 

It better be. It has to help get us all through a long offseason. Here is when, where and how to catch this game. 

When: Monday, Jan. 7, 2013

Start Time: 8 p.m. ET

Watch: ESPN

Live Streaming: ESPN3.com

The Spectacle 

The BCS National Championship game is not the Super Bowl, but it's close. With that, we get a lot of the spectacle that comes with an event on this kind of stage. 

The nice thing about the spectacle at this game is that it will have more of college feel to it than the Hollywood overdose of the Super Bowl. 

The halftime entertainment will feature a marching band comprised of all stars from high school marching bands. As the AllStarInvitational.org points out, some of the most respected directors in college will be leading this band. 

Seeing hungry, talented and elated high schoolers will be a nice break from coddled stars lip-synching songs they are tired of playing.

There will be a little something for everyone in the broadcast of this game.  

Who Will Rise to the Challenge? 

One of my favorite things about watching championship sports is seeing who can come up with a performance greater than it was fair to expect. 

Sometimes it is a star; sometimes it is a role guy.

With all the eyes of the sporting world fixed on this game, the pressure on these young men is insane. It can be a lot too handle. It can also bring the best out of certain players. 

All of this only increases as the game goes, and if it is close near the end, every play is a chance for every player on the field to pull off something that changes the game—and launches them as a permanent fixture in the lore of college sports.  

It's Alabama and Notre Dame...in the Title Game! 

It doesn't get any more college football than this: The Fighting Irish and the Crimson Tide battling it out for the national title. 

If these aren't the two most recognizable programs in college football, they are close. 

Alabama has recently become a fixture on this stage, but it's been a long time coming for Notre Dame. None of that should matter once this game starts. 

These two feature the best scoring defenses in the nation. So there should be plenty of big hits, great defense and points should be at a premium. 

With two programs with as much history, fan support and notoriety as these two, this game isn't just a battle of players on the field, it is a battle of fan bases, supporters, regions, ghosts and reputations.