ESPN ranked the best 15 college football games this season. Guess who is No. 1?
The SEC didn’t dominate the list, but did take the top spots in ESPN’s ranking of the 15 best college football games of the 2018 season.
The SEC Championship game between Georgia and Alabama, and the seven-overtime thriller between LSU and Texas A&M occupied the top two spots on ESPN’s list.
Georgia-Alabama were ranked No. 2, with LSU-Texas A&M ranked as the best game of the 2018 college football season.
Alabama won the SEC championship in comeback fashion, 35-28, over Georgia to eliminate the Bulldogs from making the CFP field, while maintaining the No. 1 ranking the Crimson Tide had throughout the season.
Pivotal in the Tide’s victory was Jalen Hurts, who had a role reversal for starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. Last season, Tagovailoa relieved Hurts in the national championship victory over UGA. This time, it was Hurts replacing an injured Tagovailoa in leading ‘Bama past the ‘Dawgs.
“Hurts led Alabama on two fourth-quarter touchdown drives, helping the Tide to the SEC championship and the top spot in the playoff,” ESPN wrote about the game.
There’s nothing that can be said about LSU-A&M to do that game justice, because it was simply epic. There was a premature Gatorade bath when Grant Delpit intercepted Kellen Mond late in the fourth quarter. But Mond, A&M’s quarterback, was ruled down when he grabbed a loose football prior to throwing the pick to Delpit, LSU’s unanimous All-American safety.
“To paraphrase Stefon from ‘Saturday Night Live,’ this game had everything: 146 points, seven overtimes, a premature Gatorade bath and that thing where a coach’s nephew reportedly gets into a fight with a guy who has a pacemaker,” ESPN wrote.
LSU’s last-second field goal to defeat Auburn made the cut at No. 10. Ohio State made the top five for its narrow Big Ten victories over Penn State and Maryland.
No team was represented more on the list than Oklahoma, who had four games cracking the top 15. The Big 12 featured in five of the games ESPN ranked.
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This story was originally published December 12, 2018 at 2:53 PM with the headline "ESPN ranked the best 15 college football games this season. Guess who is No. 1?."
