So Who's Going To Win the National Championship Game?

While the rest of the country is freezing their collective butts off, the weather in California is 70s and sunny. We wish we were there, because the football is going to be downright steamy on Thursday night.

And now, with most of the important bowl games now just a memory (although the living nightmare of the Capital One Bowl field is still giving Les Miles and LSU fans nightmares), all eyes are on the Rose Bowl for the Alabama-Texas game, which will see two unbeaten teams battle it out for the glass football.

This game's not about high-powered offenses. We expect Mark Ingram to batter Texas's defense and we expect Alabama's defense to live in the face of Colt McCoy. But then again, we expect Jordan Shipley to cause the Crimson Tide problems, and we expect Texas's defense to live in the face of Greg McElroy.

The biggest thing is actually going to be about attitude.

Here's why:

Alabama saw how badly Texas sucked against Nebraska, and regardless of what Nick Saban says about focus, they must have been laughing their asses off seeing the problems the Longhorns offensive line had with dealing with the Huskers 'D'.

Now, Texas could either learn from seeing their offensive line turned into a bunch of D-III players by Ndamukong Suh, or worry their butt off that a defense like Alabama's could probably be even nastier than the Huskers' were.

Here's the fact: Texas suddenly doesn't have a whole lot to lose. The world is expecting Alabama to win this game (they are 3/2 while Texas is 9/5) by just under a field goal. This is the first time Texas has been an underdog since THAT game against Oklahoma in 2008, and look what happened there.

Alabama may be the most complete team since '04-05's USC team to play for the National Championship. But you know what? Didn't people say that Texas didn't have a hope of beating USC in 2005? Can someone let us know what happened there?

To win, Texas simply has to shut down Mark Ingram. Unfortunately, Texas hasn't faced a really, really good running back all season long, so Ingram will be a monster surprise. And the corners have to wake up. If they don't, Blake Gideon's going to be looking at the back of Julio Jones' shirt all day long.

For Alabama to win, they've got to concentrate. They've got to act as though they are the underdog. They've got to dominate the line of scrimmage and be faster than Texas on special teams. Remember the name Jordan Shipley, Alabama fans—he's a possible game-changer.

Our prediction is that Alabama will win. But it'll be in the last minute in one of the most dramatic finishes college football has seen for a long, long time. Well, since 2005, anyway....