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Spencer Hall's the Alphabetical is a must-read every week for your college football consumption. This week he focuses his attention to Alabama's absolute wreckage of Michigan in Dallas, as he absolutely should. The Crimson Tide look just as good as they did at anytime last year, particularly with an absolutely dominant offensive line and a defense that looked like it hadn't missed a beat.
However, Hall does make a passing remark about how USC's offense versus Alabama's defense would be the ultimate test of wits on both sides.
We still want to see Alabama and USC in the national title game just to see what Alabama has to do to adjust to a team with a quarterback who can throw the ball and two wide receivers who present horrible matchups on the perimeter. The only teams to beat Alabama in the Saban era have done just that: peeled the "bumpers" off the sides, opened up the field, and then exploited the resulting gaps in the defense. USC is the only current team with an obvious chance to do that.
What is your dream BCS title matchup involving a Pac-12 team?
How Matt Barkley and Lane Kiffin would fare against Saban-ball might be the ultimate football chess match for a January title bout. The Trojans have a more than capable offensive line that can battle Alabama's defensive front, and USC has two gamebreakers in Marqise Lee and Robert Woods that can stretch the Crimson Tide defense and open up holes for the running back tandem of Curtis McNeal and Silas Redd?
Obviously there are downsides to this. Defenses could very well carry the day and make this game a low-scoring contest. However, the chance to eliminate one of the most annoying memes in our college football culture ("SEC can dominate all") might be worth the equally likely chance of reinforcing said meme. At least we'd get a true test of top talent on either side of the aisle.
Other teams mentioned in the Alphabetical include Arizona (for Rich Rodriguez's proficient offense but their constant inability to finish), Oregon (for their "Neon-Points Borg" approach to offense), Cal (for their flat-lining at home to Nevada) and Washington State (for Mike Leach's total lack of offense against BYU).