My answers are clearly biased but in terms of competitive games that were exciting from start to finish in the CFP era here’s what I have

2015 Bama v Clemson: highly competitive and had everything. Big offensive plays on the ground and in the air, significant defensive stops, explosive special teams, critical FGs…it all mattered. Plus in the 2nd year of the CFP you only had one team from the previous year’s selection make it back. This would not happen again until 2021.

2016 Bama v Clemson: highly competitive rematch but Kiffin leaving the week before and while injuries are part of the game, Bo breaking his leg mid game is enough to put 2015 ahead to me. I can see others maybe flipping the two though

2017 Bama v UGA: Bama getting behind resulting in Saban benching a 26-2 starter at QB to put in a freshman QB, 3 freshman WRs, and a freshman LT to win in OT is something only the absolute fringe of Bama fans could’ve predicted

2021 Bama v UGA: 1980 snapped and fairly competitive (if not slightly boring initially). Again, injuries are part of the game but I think most everyone thought it was inevitable once Jamo went down. Still competitive into the 4th Q, and had this gone into OT might’ve ranked higher even with an Bama L

2019 LSU v Clemson: Somewhat competitive until late 3rd/early 4th. While I understand that Clemson won their semi final on a controversial call, I thought OSU was a better team

2014 OSU v Oregon: Hard to rank a game high when a semi finalist put up a much better fight than the team that lost the final

2018 Bama v Clemson: Bama deserved to be in the game but had nothing left and it was blatantly obvious. Very lopsided win and as above, hard to rank a game high when the semi finalist did a better job than the loser of the final

2020 Bama v OSU: probably top 3 for me personally but easily the biggest blowout and since it involved two of the most hated teams in CFB I doubt anyone outside of Bama fans enjoyed this game

This post was edited on 1/13/22 at 9:12 am