It's the Clemsons

Analysis in a thimble this morning, in the wake of Clemson 44, Alabama 16:

Ronnie "Sunshine" Bass*, man. Told you the dude never loses.

(* -- See, "Remember the Titans")

And so to last night, as Ronnie Sunshine -- aka, Trevor Lawrence, Ronnie Sunshine's flowing-locks doppelganger -- lit up the Alabamas, throwing for three touchdowns and 300-some yards and generally putting a clown hat on Nick Saban's grim legions. This was an even bigger road-grading than the Clemsons put on Notre Dame, as it turns out. Clemson whipped the Crimson Tiders up front, and Ronnie Sunshine Lawrence whipped them out back. It was a thorough, definitive, no-doubt-about-it lamination.

And what does that say about the state of college football as we know it?

Nothing we didn't already know.

Which is, there is Clemson, and there is Alabama, and then there are All Them Others. All last night did is possibly reshuffle the order between 1 and 1A -- although that will probably change again next year, when Alabama beats Clemson again for the national title.

The last four national champions have come out of either Tuscaloosa or South Carolina, and nothing about last night suggests that will change anytime soon. Ronnie Sunshine is a freshman, so he's not going anywhere. Alabama has a pile of future first-round draft picks who aren't going anywhere, either. And the future first-round draft picks Dabo Swinney doesn't land on signing day a month hence, Nick Saban will.

Much was made of Clemson's watery ACC schedule in the run-up to the College Football Playoff, multiple suggestions from multiple people that all those 40-point wins the Clemsons stacked up were a tad counterfeit. Turns out they were not, and turns out Clemson's schedule was no more watery than anyone else's.

Nine of Clemson's 12 opponents went to bowl games. Only six of Alabama's did. And for every Furman on Clemson's schedule, Alabama had an Arkansas State or a Citadel.

So, tit-for-tat, basically. Except last night, when it was all Clemson, all the time.

This time.