Alabama won. That’s the short version. But honestly, if you just look at the trophy presentation, you miss why the 2015 college football playoff was such a fever dream for everyone involved. It was the second year of the new system. We were all still figuring out if this four-team bracket actually fixed the BCS mess or just gave us new things to yell about at bars. It turns out, it was the latter.
The 2015 season was a collision course between a dying breed of "ground and pound" football and the high-flying spread offenses that were starting to take over the world. You had Nick Saban—already a god in Tuscaloosa—trying to prove he wasn't a dinosaur. You had Dabo Swinney turning Clemson from a "clemsoning" punchline into a legitimate powerhouse. And then you had the Big Ten and the Big 12 basically having a mid-life crisis over who deserved the final spot.
The Messy Road to the Top Four
By the time we got to December, the selection committee was sweating. Clemson was the undisputed number one. They were 13-0, had a guy named Deshaun Watson who looked like he was playing a different sport than everyone else, and they’d just clipped North Carolina in the ACC title game. They were safe. Alabama was number two. They’d lost a weird one to Ole Miss early in the year—five turnovers will do that to you—but then they absolutely vaporized everyone else on their schedule.
Michigan State was the gritty third seed. They weren't flashy. They just beat people up. They had that miracle "trouble with the snap" win against Michigan and then a legendary 22-play drive to beat Iowa in the Big Ten Championship. People thought they were "team of destiny" material. Then you had Oklahoma at four. Baker Mayfield was just starting to become Baker Mayfield, and the Sooners were scoring points in bunches.
But what about Ohio State? They were the defending champs. They had more NFL talent on that roster than some actual NFL teams—Ezekiel Elliott, Michael Thomas, Joey Bosa—but they tripped up against Michigan State in a rainstorm and got left out. It was the first real "what if" of the playoff era. If the 2015 college football playoff had eight teams, the Buckeyes probably win the whole thing. Instead, they went to the Fiesta Bowl and beat Notre Dame by two touchdowns while the rest of us wondered if the committee got it wrong.
The New Year's Eve Disaster
The semifinals were, frankly, terrible. It’s hard to overstate how much of a letdown those games were for the average fan. They were scheduled on New Year’s Eve, which was a logistical nightmare for anyone who actually has a social life. Ratings cratered. People were at parties trying to watch football on their phones while "Auld Lang Syne" played in the background.
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Clemson vs. Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl started out competitive. The Sooners were leading at halftime. Then, Clemson’s defensive line just took over. Kevin Dodd and Shaq Lawson started living in Baker Mayfield’s lap. Clemson won 37-17. It wasn't even that close by the fourth quarter.
Then came the Cotton Bowl. Alabama vs. Michigan State.
This game was a slaughter. Pure and simple. Michigan State’s "gritty" style worked against Iowa, but it was useless against Alabama’s front seven. Connor Cook spent the entire night running for his life. Jake Coker—a quarterback Alabama fans were mostly "meh" about most of the year—actually played the game of his life. He was dropping dimes. Alabama won 38-0. It was the kind of game that makes you question why we even bother with playoffs if Bama is just going to do that to people. It was boring. It was clinical. It was Nick Saban at his most terrifying.
That Incredible Night in Glendale
The national championship game on January 11, 2016, saved the entire season. If the semifinals were a snooze-fest, the final was a masterpiece. Clemson and Alabama met in Glendale, Arizona, and they just traded haymakers for four hours.
Deshaun Watson was incredible. Truly. He threw for over 400 yards and ran for another 70 against a defense that had future NFL starters at almost every position. He made Alabama look slow. For a while, it felt like Clemson was actually going to pull it off. They were leading 24-21 in the fourth quarter.
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Then Saban did something he never does. He gambled.
With the game tied at 24, Alabama lined up for a kickoff. Everyone expected a standard deep kick. Instead, Adam Griffith popped a perfect onside kick—a "blooper" kick—that Marlon Humphrey caught in stride. Clemson’s return team was caught completely off guard. They weren't even looking. That single play changed the geometry of the game. A few plays later, Coker hit O.J. Howard for a 51-yard touchdown.
Howard was the X-factor. He hadn't scored a touchdown all year. Not one. Then, in the biggest game of his life, he goes for 208 yards and two scores. Clemson’s defense kept losing him in coverage, which is still baffling when you look back at the tape. How do you lose a 6'6" tight end who runs like a deer?
Clemson didn't quit, though. Watson kept dragging them back into it. But Kenyan Drake—who had dealt with so many injuries during his time at Bama—returned a kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown. It was a track meet disguised as a football game. Alabama ended up winning 45-40.
Why the 2015 College Football Playoff Still Matters
Looking back, this playoff changed how we think about the sport. It was the moment everyone realized you can’t just play "Big Ten" ball and beat the elite teams. You need dynamic, dual-threat quarterbacks. Michigan State's 38-0 loss was basically the death knell for that specific style of plodding offense in the playoff.
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It also cemented the Alabama-Clemson rivalry. We didn't know it then, but we were going to see these two teams play each other in the postseason four more times over the next few years. It was the start of a "two-team era" that some fans loved and others absolutely hated.
The 2015 college football playoff also proved that the committee cares about the "eye test" more than almost anything else. Oklahoma got in despite a bad loss to a mediocre Texas team because they finished strong. Ohio State stayed out despite being clearly one of the four best teams because they didn't have the "resume" after one bad Saturday. It set the precedent for the arguments we still have every single Tuesday in November.
What We Learned (The Reality Check)
- Quarterbacks are everything. Deshaun Watson didn't win, but he proved that a generational QB can almost single-handedly dismantle a Saban defense.
- Special teams aren't just "the third phase." They were the only phase that mattered in the fourth quarter of the title game. That onside kick is still the gutsiest call of Saban’s career.
- The "SEC is dying" narrative was premature. People thought the spread offense had passed Saban by. 2015 proved he could adapt, recruit better athletes, and win anyway.
- Depth wins titles. Alabama’s roster was so deep that O.J. Howard—their fifth or sixth option all season—was the best player on the field in the championship.
If you’re looking to dive deeper into the stats of this season, don’t just look at the box scores. Go watch the film of that fourth quarter in Glendale. It’s a clinic on how high-level football is played when both teams are exhausted. If you want to understand the modern era of the sport, you have to start here. This was the year the "dynasty" evolved.
To really get the full picture, go back and watch the highlights of the 2015 Michigan State vs. Iowa Big Ten title game first. It provides the perfect contrast. It shows you the world that was ending, right before Alabama and Clemson showed us the world that was beginning. That contrast is the real story of the 2015 season.