Paul Finebaum makes his prediction for CFP national championship game

It’s officially College Football Playoff national championship game day, as top-ranked Alabama and No. 3 Georgia will collide tonight (8 p.m. ET, ESPN) at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis in the final contest of the 2021-22 college football season.

In what will be a rematch of the Dec. 4 SEC championship game, which the Crimson Tide won 41-24 over the Bulldogs, Nick Saban’s club is surprisingly a 2.5-point underdog coming in. Although Vegas believes that Kirby Smart will record his first win against his former boss, ESPN’s Paul Finebaum sure doesn’t think so.

Finebaum, ESPN’s college football analyst who hosts The Paul Finebaum Show, joined the network’s First Take show on Friday and provided his prediction for Monday night’s College Football Playoff national championship game.

“I’m not going against Nick Saban,” Finebaum said. “I’ve done it once or twice in my life, and I’m not doing it again. I think he’s the better coach. I think Georgia might have the better team on paper, but I don’t think a lot has changed [since the SEC championship game]. You mention [John] Metchie [being out], but other than that, I think it’s the same two teams and I think we’ll get not a similar result in terms of a three or four touchdown win, but I think Alabama will win this game.”

According to ESPN’s Football Power Index, Georgia has a 58.4% chance to beat Alabama. If the Bulldogs can in fact pull it off, it would be their first win over the Crimson Tide since 2007, when they recorded a 26-23 victory in Tuscaloosa.

Nick Saban reflects on 2011 national championship game, experience with rematches

The Crimson Tide were in a similar situation back in 2011, when they played LSU in the regular season and then in the BCS national championship game. Alabama lost the regular-season meeting 9-6 in overtime, but bounced back with a 21-0 win over the Tigers in the title match.

Heading into the College Football Playoff national championship rematch with Georgia, Alabama head coach Nick Saban was asked if the Tide’s 2011 experience of playing a team twice – with the second meeting coming in the national championship – translates to this season’s.

“I don’t know that experience is going to have anything to do with this experience,” Saban said. “We’ve got a different team. They’ve got a different team. They’ve got a good team. So, you know, I don’t know. Our players were focused in the game. Those two games were extremely hard-fought, close games in both circumstances – and I would expect the same in this game.

“I think both teams sort of realized where they are. The opportunity that they created for themselves and everybody’s going to be really zeroed-in on trying to do the best job they can to take advantage of it. So, I don’t know that there’s anything that I can really take from that experience that’s going to have any effect or impact on this one.”