College Football: 10 Teams who could dethrone Clemson and Alabama

Clemson and Alabama have split the last four College Football National Championships, and both are favored to make it back in 2019. Which teams could dethrone them?

Alabama has been the preeminent dynasty in college football over the last decade. Nick Saban has lead the Crimson Tide to five National Championships since 2009, and Alabama has made the College Football Playoff all five years of its existence. They’ve played in the last four National Championship Games, going 2-2 in those games.

For a while, catching Alabama has felt hopeless. The Tide has been far and away ahead of everyone else, relegating everyone else to the “rest of ya’ll” bus as Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney put it earlier this year.

Now Swinney’s Tigers seem to have fully caught up to Saban’s Tide, proving that Alabama isn’t invincible. On Monday night in Santa Clara, Clemson showed the rest of the college football world that Alabama can bleed just like everyone else.

The Tigers throttled the Tide 44-16 at Levi’s Stadium, Doubling the worst loss Alabama ever suffered in Nick Saban’s 12-years at the helm. Most impressively, Clemson did it with a true freshman QB, and a slew of underclassmen skill-position players highlighted by Phenix City, Alabama freshman WR Justyn Ross.

The national championship was Clemson’s second in three years, proving that Dabo’s Tigers have the staying power beyond generational QB Deshaun Watson. He built Clemson in Alabama’s image, and now his team has emerged as the primary challenger for the crimson throne.

The bully became the bullied on Monday night, but it would be foolish to pen an obituary for the Crimson Tide with a ton of talented players returning to Tuscaloosa next season as well as the nation’s No. 1 ranked recruiting class.

Alabama will be back, but Clemson will almost certainly be there waiting for them. The two teams opened as the favorites to win the national championship in 2019, and are likely on a collision course for a fifth straight meeting in next year’s playoff.

Coaches and fans have long awaited the fall of the Saban dynasty in Tuscaloosa, and many were happy to see Clemson’s rout of Alabama. With that, however, came the startling realization that a second superpower has emerged in college football, and the only thing that changed is that the “rest of ya’ll” bus lost its flagship member.

It’s now Alabama, Clemson, and the rest of ya’ll.

With Clemson and Alabama the obvious favorites in 2019, which teams have the best shot at dethroning the Tide and Tigers to summit the college football mountain?