ATLANTA—It ended up being a little closer than anyone expected, but the final result remained the same: Alabama stomping its way through the SEC championship and into the College Football Playoff once again, this time over the flailing claws of the valiant-but-not-quite-good-enough Florida Gators.
Put Texas A&M into the playoff. Put Notre Dame into the playoff. Put Coastal Carolina into the playoff. Put them all into the playoff, send them out all at once against Alabama, and they might be able to hang in for a half.
Alabama dismantled the Gators, 52-46, in the cruelest way possible: By dangling hope just out of reach of Florida’s poor, short little alligator arms.