Every game matters.
Isn’t that what the marketers of college football in general, and the College Football Playoff in particular, continually espouse?
Isn’t that also why Oklahoma’s Kyler Murray won the Heisman Trophy on Saturday night instead of Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa, who was believed to be the overwhelming favorite for much of the season?
Because in the end, in the game that mattered most for each – the Big 12 title game against Texas for Murray, the Southeastern Conference title game for Tagovailoa – Murray was the better performer. Much better – as in probably the biggest reason why the Sooners reversed an earlier loss to the Longhorns with a solid 39-27 win as opposed to Bama fighting back from a big hole against Georgia only after Tagovailoa went to the bench early in the fourth quarter with an injury.
It was at that moment in the early evening of Dec. 1 – less than 48 hours before all Heisman voting would cease – that a sea change came over the electorate. Murray had performed best when it mattered most while Tagovailoa had struggled, albeit, at least somewhat, because of injury.