Clemson vs. LSU: TV Info, Picks for College Football Championship 2020

Months of debate, posturing and prognosticating will all come to a head Monday night when the No. 1 LSU Tigers take on No. 3 Clemson Tigers at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans.

The two undefeated teams have seemingly been on a collision course since the Alabama Crimson Tide were knocked out of the playoff race when the decade's most dominant program fell to rival Auburn in the last week of the regular season.

Clemson can capture its third national title in the College Football Playoff era and second straight with a victory over one of the sport's most dominant teams this year.

College Football National Championship

Monday, Jan 13

No. 3 Clemson vs. No. 1 LSU (-6), 8:00 p.m. ET, ESPN

LSU came into the season with plenty of hype thanks to quarterback Joe Burrow's development, but it was Clemson that led both the AP and Coaches Polls as the No. 1 team in the country.

Led by sophomore quarterback Trevor Lawrence (3,431 yards, 36 touchdowns, eight interceptions), junior running back Travis Etienne (1,536 yards, 18 touchdowns) and junior wide out Tee Higgins (56 catches, 1,115 yards, 13 touchdowns), Clemson heads into Monday's matchup with plenty of playoff experience, having advanced to the national title game three times in the past four years.

The program's architect, head coach Dabo Swinney, has built an offensive juggernaut, but it remains Clemson's defense anchoring the team. In 2019, the Tigers had the best defense in the nation, allowing just 244.7 yards per game and 10.6 points per game—both leading the NCAA.

Junior linebacker Isaiah Simmons took another step forward this season after putting together a stellar 2018 campaign. He finished the year with a team-high 97 total tackles and six sacks while intercepting three passes and forcing a fumble. Shutting him down will be crucial for LSU's offense to continue operating at full strength.

With Burrow (5,208 yards, 55 touchdowns, six interceptions) and sophomore wideout Ja'Marr Chase (75 receptions, 1,559 yards, 18 touchdowns) running the show, LSU led the nation in offense in 2019 and proved impossible to slow down in its semifinal, blowing out Oklahoma 63-28.

Burrow's story is a microcosm of college football's ecosystem. A 4-star recruit from Athens, Ohio, the quarterback originally joined Ohio State but struggled to get on the field behind the likes of J.T. Barrett and Dwayne Haskins. After transferring to LSU in 2018, he took over an offense that was beginning to flourish under head coach Ed Orgeron and won the Heisman Trophy in 2019.

Monday night's matchup is a de facto home game for LSU. The Tigers' campus in Baton Rouge is about an hour's drive from New Orleans, and the school has already cancelled classes Monday and Tuesday in anticipation of the game.

In essence, Monday night will determine whether Clemson has succeeded Alabama as the premier program in the nation or if LSU can finish off a reinvention of its image since Orgeron replaced longtime head coach Les Miles in 2016.

Either way, football fans are getting what they have always wanted: the two best college teams in the country battling it out for the national title.

Prediction: LSU, 38-33