College Football Playoffs 2018: Championship Game Info for Alabama vs. Georgia
A team from the SEC will be crowned the champion of college football on January 8.
The No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs and No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide will square off at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, on Monday in the national championship.
Alabama is no stranger to the title game, as it has reached the final game of the college football season in each of the last three seasons.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Georgia has thrust itself back into the national spotlight in Kirby Smart's second season as head coach. Smart, who was the defensive coordinator at Alabama before he took the Georgia job, will be the latest former assistant of Nick Saban to attempt beating him.
Date: Monday, January 8
Time: 8 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN
Live Stream: Watch ESPN
SEC Team in Title Game for 3rd Straight Year
Georgia will be playing for its first national championship of the College Football Playoff era, but it isn't the first time the SEC has had a team compete for college football's crown since the new system was put into place.
The SEC has been represented in each of the last three seasons in the national championship, with Alabama winning in 2016 and coming up short against Clemson in 2017.
The Bulldogs used a blocked field goal by Lorenzo Carter to set up Sony Michel's game-winning touchdown in the second overtime of the Rose Bowl to knock off the No. 2 Oklahoma Sooners.
Michel, who is one half of Georgia's tremendous running back tandem, ran for 181 yards on 11 carries for three touchdowns. The senior broke the Rose Bowl yards-per-carry record that was held since Tyrone Wheatley's 1993 performance for Michigan, per ESPN Stats and Info:
Georgia will be looking to win its first national championship since 1980, when the legendary Vince Dooley was at the helm.
Unlike Georgia, Alabama has plenty of title-game experience, as it's making its third straight appearance in the national championship. Under Nick Saban, the Crimson Tide have played in five national championships and won four of them.
Monday's showdown of SEC titans, who did not play in the regular season, will be the first meeting of conference foes in the national championship since 2012, when Alabama defeated LSU in the BCS national championship at the Superdome.
Nick Saban Set to Face Former Assistant
Saban's coaching tree has spread its branches throughout college football, with Smart being the latest success story of the bunch at Georgia.
Although they reside in the same conference, Smart and Saban have not faced off against each other since Smart departed Tuscaloosa, Alabama, for Athens, Georgia.
In Smart's first season in charge, the Bulldogs took on Auburn and Ole Miss from the SEC West, while this season they went head-to-head with Auburn twice and Mississippi State.
Saban comes into the national championship with an 11-0 record against his former assistants, with his victory over Jimbo Fisher and Florida State at the start of the regular season being his latest scalp.
Saban has defeated former assistants Mark Dantonio, Derek Dooley, Jim McElwain, Will Muschamp and Fisher, but Smart's Georgia team possesses a threat that could put a crooked number in the loss column.
Georgia's defense is as formidable as the one Alabama boasts, and an argument can be made that the playmakers on the Bulldogs offensive unit are more dynamic than Alabama's.
Michel and Chubb have rarely been stopped by opposing defenses, and they avenged the one defense that was able to halt them in the SEC Championship to pave the way to the College Football Playoff and then the national championship. Of course, things are expected to be different against Alabama's defensive line that tore apart any protection packages Clemson had.
There will be a ton of debate as to which unit is the most talented of two over the next week, but one thing most can agree on is both of these SEC powers are deserving of their respective spots in the national championship.
Follow Joe on Twitter, @JTansey90.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
