How 2011 Game of the Century with Alabama and LSU led to College Football Playoff

How the first Game of the Century between LSU and Alabama in 2011 led to the birth of the College Football Playoff.

College football has a history of proclaiming a “Game of the Century” every few years. Littered throughout the 20th century, the moniker has already applied to several contests throughout the 21st century as well.

With the upcoming showdown between No. 1 LSU vs. No. 2 Alabama in Tuscaloosa earning the title, it is worth remembering the last time a contest was proclaimed the “Game of the Century”. That contest, which took place eight years ago on the same field between the same two schools, set up the two teams for a rematch in the BCS National Championship Game two months later.

Let’s look back at the 2011 season that gave us the most recent “Game of the Century” and the all-SEC matchup in the BCS Championship Game that helped accelerate the FBS toward the advent of the four-team College Football Playoff era.

Nov. 5, 2011: LSU 9, Alabama 6 (OT) in Tuscaloosa

LSU and Alabama took the field at Bryant-Denny Stadium in the evening on November 5 expecting a defensive struggle. Alabama boasted the top-ranked defense in the country, while the visiting Tigers ranked in the top five in every defensive category. More than anything, LSU-Alabama I during the 2011 season offered up a clinic in the costs of overlooking special teams as the two teams fought a kicking battle.

Alabama received the ball first, marching 43 yards on five plays before stalling and setting up for a 44-yard field goal attempt. Sophomore kicker Cade Foster missed the kick. The same thing happened after the Crimson Tide defense got the ball back from LSU, as the Alabama offense marched downfield before settling for a shot at a 50-yard kick. Foster missed this kick as well, and on their third drive — with junior kicker Jeremy Shelley in for the attempt — Alabama saw their 49-yard effort get blocked by the Tigers.

Alabama’s fourth offensive series finally resulted in a successful field goal, as Shelley converted from 34 yards with 3:53 remaining to give the hosts a 3-0 lead. LSU marched downfield, taking 11 plays and using up the entire rest of the clock before halftime to set up Drew Alleman for a successful 19-yard chip shot to tie the game at the intermission.

After the break, the two teams traded punts before LSU quarterback Jarrett Lee threw a costly interception to Mark Barron deep in Tigers territory. Foster finally punched through a field goal, connecting from 46 yards out to give Alabama a 6-3 lead.

The way things played out for much of the game, it looked like the lead might just hold. But then AJ McCarron threw an interception of his own, as Morris Claiborne returned the pick inside the red zone. Alleman struck the ball through the uprights from 30 yards for his second field goal of the day as LSU tied the game back up at 6-6 early in the fourth quarter.

On the ensuing drive, Saban and offensive coordinator Jim McElwain tried to get too cute by degrees. After a big Trent Richardson run put the Tide at the LSU 28, the coaches dialed up a trick wide receiver pass play. Marquise Maze threw to tight end, Michael Williams. But Eric Reid wrested the ball from the receiver for the interception on the shadow of his own goal line.

LSU went three-and-out on their next drive, and Brad Wing launched a 73-yard punt from inside his own end zone to flip the field and prevent Alabama from getting back into scoring range. When the Tide got the ball back with 52 seconds remaining on their own 20, Saban elected to run out the clock and play for overtime.

The visitors won the coin toss and elected to play defense first. LSU showed off their stinginess, forcing two McCarron incompletions and then sacking the quarterback to force a 52-yard field goal try. In came Cade Foster, who missed his third long field goal of the game. The Bayou Bengals thought they won the game when Michael Ford pierced the goal line on the second play of their overtime drive, but replay showed he stepped out of bounds at the Alabama 7.

Three plays later, Alleman came in for his third field goal of the game. Striking true from 25 yards, Alleman came up the hero on a day when special teams were at a premium. While Alleman went 3-of-3 on his field goal tries, Foster and Shelley combined to go just 2-of-6. For those who love defense, it was truly a “Game of the Century”. For impartial observers of the contest, however, the close finish almost immediately stirred up discussion about whether the two teams should meet again in the BCS championship game.

Five years earlier, Ohio State and Michigan played a similar thriller in their regular-season finale in the previous “Game of the Century” between the top two teams in the country. Ohio State prevailed 42-37 over the Wolverines, securing a spot in the title game. But some hard lobbying from Florida coach Urban Meyer earned the Gators the other spot in the championship game, relegating Michigan to the Rose Bowl and a date with USC.

“I would be honored to face that team again,” said Les Miles in the locker room as his LSU team celebrated the victory over the Crimson Tide. Two months later, Miles got his wish.

Jan 9, 2012: Alabama 21, LSU 0 in New Orleans

When the final BCS rankings came out in early December after the conclusion of conference championship games, SEC champion LSU found itself firmly perched in the top spot of the hierarchy. Behind them, Alabama stayed at No. 2 ahead of Oklahoma State. That put the Tigers and Tide on a collision course to meet at the Superdome in New Orleans on Jan. 9 to play for the ultimate prize.

Big 12 champion Oklahoma State had the biggest gripe of all, as the Cowboys were left to wonder what might have been if not for a double-overtime loss in a Friday-night game at Iowa State two days after women’s basketball coach Kurt Budke and assistant coach Miranda Serna were killed in a plane crash that rocked the Stillwater campus.

Despite the exceptional circumstances and the fact Oklahoma State was still “undefeated in regulation” the Tide got the nod for the chance to face LSU in what was quickly billed as the “Rematch of the Century.”

Like the earlier showdown, this too turned into a kicking display. For Alabama, though, things turned out far better on that front. Jeremy Shelley, firmly entrenched as the placekicker for the Crimson Tide, was by no means perfect. The junior had a 42-yard attempt blocked early in the second quarter and also missed on a 41-yarder midway through the third quarter. But he also converted successfully on field goals from 23, 34, 41, 35 and 44 yards.

A defense that gave up just 242 yards against LSU in their first meeting was even better in the rematch, holding the Tigers to only 92 total yards of offense in the BCS championship game. Jordan Jefferson, back on the field as the starting quarterback for LSU, went 11-of-17 for just 53 yards and one interception. The backfield finished with just 39 rushing yards on 27 carries, as Alabama stifled everything the Tigers tried on offense.

“We couldn’t sustain any consistency,” Miles said after the game about their offensive struggles. “The calls became much more difficult.”

Trent Richardson punched in a late 34-yard touchdown run with less than five minutes remaining in the contest to seal the final score at 21-0. Shelley, just to give Saban another special-teams scare, missed on the extra-point attempt on a night where he tied a postseason record with five field goals.

LSU went three-and-out, Alabama ran out the clock, and Nick Saban won his second national championship at Alabama and deprived his replacement in Baton Rouge of his second crystal pigskin. This time the Tide prevailed in LSU-Alabama II, and the SEC champions were forced to watch the team they beat in their place in the regular season celebrate a national championship.

What (if anything) can we learn from these contests?

First and foremost, given the high-flying offenses fielded by LSU and Alabama this year, we are unlikely to see a low-scoring defensive battle that depends on the legs of each team’s placekicker. Given that the aggregate total points of the two contests in the 2011 season add up to 36, we could see at least that many points before halftime.

What 2011 teaches us, more than anything, is losing the SEC West is not an automatic impediment to staying in the national title race. In the College Football Playoff era, it is even more likely a one-loss team from the SEC is in play for one of the four semifinal berths. We saw that scenario play out in the 2017 season when Georgia faced SEC West runner-up Alabama in the CFP title game.

While neither the College Football Playoff selection committee nor the AP Top 25 officially considers this a matchup of the top two teams in the country, the Coaches Poll still has the Tide and Tigers ranked No. 1 and No. 2. Even with that disclaimer, though, this is likely to be another hard-fought battle that goes down to the wire like the November 2011 matchup rather than the shutout rematch of January 2012.

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