College Football Championship 2015: Latest Twitter Hype, Pick for Oregon vs. OSU

Without the College Football Playoff system, the conversation heading into Monday night's national championship game would have been far different. Mostly because neither of the participants would've made the trip.

Instead, we'd be discussing Jameis Winston's quest for a second title in as many seasons and Nick Saban's continued domination of the college football landscape. Alabama and Florida State, who lost to Ohio State and Oregon in the semifinals, would have skated through without much question from the outside world. The Crimson Tide won the sport's toughest conference and the Seminoles were the lone FBS unbeaten team during the regular season.

In other words: The College Football Playoff formula may not yet be perfect, but it's far better than the alternative. Monday will see Marcus Mariota attempt to etch his name near (or at) the top of the sport's all-time greats, while Urban Meyer tries to join Saban as the only coach to win a national championship at two different schools.

For better or for worse, Monday night history will be made in Dallas. With just hours before kickoff, then, let's take a look around the wonderful World Wide Web and see what people are saying about the title game. Oh, and then I'll happen to say a few words of a predictive nature at the end.

What the World Is Saying

Hello friends. I'm sure you, like I, have a Twitter account. For those of you unfamiliar with the service, Twitter is a social media network that allows friends (or even strangers!) to connect with one another via messages of 140 characters or less. What people often like to do on this social media website is express their sports opinions.

For instance, here is a sports opinion from the Lost Lettermen website:

Stewart Mandel of Fox Sports offers his own football opinion: 

Want to party with the Duck of Oregon fame? Of course you do. Here's how much it will cost, per ESPN's Darren Rovell: 

"

Oregon charges $300 per hour for the duck mascot to go to a party, $150 for 15 minutes at a game day tailgate

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) January 12, 2015"

Do you like bingo? Oh, who am I kidding. Everyone loves bingo. Here's a form of the popular rest-home game you may play this evening, courtesy of SB Nation:

Vegas insider R.J. Bell offers this nugget, which, well, is kind of insane:

I'm just going to tweet-dump all these stats from ESPN Stats & Info. They're like my children (that I don't have); I can't just choose one:

We'll close with something I mostly just find amusing, via Bryan Curtis of Grantland:

That was your Twitter update for Monday, Jan. 12, 2015. Be sure to check back on Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2016 when we will revisit these tweets and mock the incorrect ones. (Not really.)

What I'm Saying

Oregon will win.

Oh, you would prefer I offer some sort of explanation. Alrighty then, here it goes.

Oregon will win because it has the game's best player. Mariota is one touchdown away from being the first player in college football history to amass 50 more total touchdowns than turnovers in the same season. Over the course of his career, he's thrown 1,130 passes and only 13 of them have gone to the other team. Mariota has fewer interceptions over a three-year span than Jameis Winston had during his sophomore campaign alone.

While Mariota is far from a one-man band, making head-to-head choices is a tricky process that essentially comes down to trust. When you do the proverbial if-your-life-depended-on-it mental game, which of these two teams—and quarterbacks—would you rather ride with? It's an imperfect science but becomes easier to justify when teams are so close.

Cardale Jones has done an excellent job across his two games under center, but he's benefited from some sensational play from skill-position players. Ezekiel Elliott should be effective against a shaky Oregon run defense. The odds are stacked against him being the 450 yards' worth of effective he was against Wisconsin and Alabama. Nor are the odds in his favor for breaking out another rushing touchdown of 80-plus yards.

In fact, the Ohio State offense under Jones has become so big-play dependent it'll be interesting to see if there's a mean regression here. Each of Jones' touchdown passes over the last two games has gone to Devin Smith and were plays of 39 yards or more. Smith's a dangerous target who's made a living at Ohio State burning opposing defensive backs, but the Buckeyes leaning on that strategy tends to lean toward high-variance outcomes.

Whenever he's not making big plays, Jones' production has tended to slow down. He struggles with accuracy between the hashmarks and has shown a propensity for trying to fit balls into small windows. Arm strength is the last thing on Jones' weakness list, but it's something the Oregon defense can take advantage of in the right situation.

Mariota doesn't make such mistakes. While he's not been at his most accurate in the beginning of games, spacing in the Oregon offense tends to give him extra leeway. Mariota's pro readiness has been called into question because he so rarely fits balls into tight windows, but we won't have to worry about that until April.

For now, it's a trust exercise. On one side, Meyer wins the trust battle over the still-unproven Mark Helfrich. On the other, Mariota gallops away with the victory over Jones. In the case of a tie, always choose the side whose talent you trust more.

Score: Oregon 42, Ohio State 31

Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter