The Crimson Tide and the Buckeyes are both undefeated going into the College Football Playoff final.
A rocky college football season comes to an end on Monday night when top-seeded Alabama plays No.3 Ohio State for the national championship. Both teams have sharp offenses and sometimes struggle on defense. There are also questions going into the game about whether certain stars will be able to compete given injuries. There had been some questions last week about whether the game would be played as scheduled, because of the coronavirus pandemic that has upended games throughout the sport, but the game was on track to proceed. It will air on ESPN at 8 p.m. Eastern time. The N.C.A.A. won’t act today to let students profit from their fame. Ohio State’s Justin Fields expects to play tonight. He’s taking a risk. Alabama’s Steve Sarkisian is getting a new job. Lane Kiffin doubts he’s been too distracted. Alabama and Ohio officials begged fans to celebrate at home. It might not have worked. Ohio State’s Trey Sermon is peaking at the right time. Alabama knows it. Ohio State knows it will have its hands full with Alabama’s offense. While fans watch Alabama and Ohio State duke it out, the host state Florida struggles with the coronavirus. Alabama has many weapons going into the title game. What to know about Ohio State before kickoff. By Alan Blinder Less than two hours before the College Football Playoff’s championship game, the N.C.A.A. said one of its most influential committees had postponed plans for a Monday vote on proposals that would let student-athletes profit off their fame. The decision was expected after Mark Emmert, the N.C.A.A. president, urged the body, the Division I Council, to delay consideration of the plan in light of concerns that the Justice Department detailed in a letter on Friday. In a statement on Monday evening, the N.C.A.A. said “judicial, political and enforcement issues » had influenced the council’s decision to wait. “The council remains fully committed to modernizing Division I rules in ways that benefit all student-athletes,” said M. Grace Calhoun, the council’s leader and the athletic director at the University of Pennsylvania. “Unfortunately, external factors require this pause, and the council will use this time to enhance the proposals.” The existing proposals would open up potentially lucrative opportunities that have not previously been available to student-athletes, like earning money from social media posts. They would have certain limits and would, for example, forbid students from promoting sports betting. They would also allow colleges and universities to block agreements between players and companies if they conflict with “existing institutional sponsorship arrangements” and require students to disclose their name, image and likeness “activities to an independent third-party administrator” — provisions that prompted concerns among supporters of new rights for student-athletes. In a letter to Emmert on Friday, the assistant attorney general who oversees the Justice Department’s antitrust division said the government wanted to ensure that any N.C.A.A. rules “will allow college athletes to benefit from robust competition for their talents.” The last-minute missive clearly frustrated Emmert, who described it as a “massive monkey wrench” for a debate that has unfolded inside the N.C.A. A, but also in statehouses and on Capitol Hill. By Billy Witz As a high school senior in Georgia, Justin Fields knew immediately that something was wrong when he was tackled in front of his bench during a playoff game. As he looked down at his throwing hand, he saw his right index finger bent at a grotesque angle. Fields rose to his feet and held his hand up to his coach. Fields did not play another down in high school. The star quarterback had surgery, did his best to mentor his replacement for the next two weeks as the team advanced, and even broached the idea of returning to play running back. But his coach said no. Echos of three years ago resonate as Fields, the Ohio State quarterback, enters Monday night’s national championship game against top-ranked Alabama in uncertain physical condition. He took a crunching blow — a helmet to the back of the ribs — in a semifinal win over Clemson on Jan.1. After he lay on the turf for several minutes, Fields was helped to the sideline and received an injection or two, he told reporters after the game. The shots allowed him to continue playing, which he did superbly, even as he moved gingerly and often winced when he threw. Ohio State has refused to disclose any details about the injury or what treatment Fields might need to play against Alabama, leaving open ethical questions about whether Ohio State is putting its hopes for winning a championship ahead of the health interests of its players. By Alan Blinder On New Year’s Day, Alabama beat Notre Dame in the Rose Bowl. By the next night, Nick Saban knew he needed a new offensive coordinator: Steve Sarkisian had accepted an offer to become the next coach at Texas. Working for one team and landing a job with another is a tricky, familiar circumstance for big-time programs during the postseason. Alabama had a Sarkisian-style situation not too long ago, actually. Near the end of the 2016 season, Lane Kiffin, then Alabama’s offensive coordinator, accepted the top job at Florida Atlantic. Ultimately, Alabama used an interim offensive coordinator for that title game. But in an interview last week, Kiffin, now the head coach at Mississippi, said he thought Sarkisian had been able to better balance the role he’s leaving with his new job in Austin. “When we got a head job before, there wasn’t Covid so there was active recruiting going on, so you’re literally recruiting and going back and forth between the schools and stuff,” Kiffin said. “And there’s hardly any recruiting because of the early signing period,” which ended on Dec.18. (For more on how the early signing period is no longer all that early, we explored that subject in February.) For his part, Sarkisian insisted before the game that he had not been distracted by his impending move. “Quite honestly, my week for me would be a normal game week as if I hadn’t taken the Texas job,” he said. “My focus is on the game. I’m prepping for the ballgame. Any of the spare time that I do have, that’s getting my attention for the job at Texas, whether that’s staffing or recruiting, things of that nature.” And Saban, who famously complained about assistants being distracted a couple of years ago, said on Sunday he had no objections to how events had proceeded this time. “I think our coaching staff has done a really good job working with our players,” Saban said. “Sark is the one guy that has shown great maturity, I think, in how he’s handled his situation, moving on to be a head coach, which is what he’s worked for, and we’re happy for him relative to the opportunity that he’s created for himself by the great job that he’s done for us here. But I have no complaints at all with the way our coaches have sort of handled the situation.” By Gillian R. Brassil The bar-lined Strip in Tuscaloosa, Ala., is usually filled with Crimson-clad football fans during championship games, who storm the street if the Crimson Tide win. The mayor of Tuscaloosa, the home city of the University of Alabama, was hoping that fans would stay home on Monday night as the city struggles with virus cases and limited capacity in hospitals. “We’re probably in our most precarious position since the pandemic began in early March,” Mayor Walt Maddox said in a Zoom interview last week. “When your hospital has four available I.C.U. rooms left, that’s as serious as it gets,” he added. Health officials encouraged avid football followers to adopt Coach Nick Saban’s philosophy: “Do your job.” “Our job is to social distance, wear a mask, follow the occupancy orders,” the mayor said of those who would choose to watch the game in the company of people outside their immediate household. “And, if we are successful Monday night, that we don’t flood the streets and create a block party environment.
