A year ago Alabama turned back LSU 21–0 in one of the more dominating defensive performances in a championship game ever recorded as the Tigers didn’t even reach mid-field until the fourth quarter. This year Alabama topped last year’s performance with a 42–14 win in a game that was over shortly after halftime. Where the dominating performance ranks among title games of the last 20 seasons is up for debate, but here we'll rank the top five. On to the list:
5. Jan. 8, 2007: Florida 41, Ohio State 14
Ohio State’s Ted Ginn Jr. actually started this one with a 93-yard touchdown return to put the Buckeyes up 7–0, just seconds into the game. An unfazed Gator squad though, led by a pair of quarterbacks in senior Chris Leak and freshman Tim Tebow, scored a pair of touchdowns before the first quarter ended and then put up two more in the next quarter, plus a pair of field goals, to take a nearly insurmountable 34–14 lead into halftime.
Meanwhile, an out-of-sync Buckeyes offense managed little against Urban Meyer’s defense. Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith finished just 4/14 passing for 35 yards as the offense as a whole managed just 82 total yards in the loss.
