Monday night’s BCS Championship Game started looking like the first meeting between LSU and Alabama but sure did not end that way.

After Alabama lost to LSU 9 to 6 in overtime in their first meeting on Nov. 11, many questioned whether the tide would even make it to the championship game in the Mercede-Benz Superdome in New Orleans.  But Alabama made it to the game and came ready to fight LSU to the last.

The game began with a first quarter score of 3-0 in Alabama’s favor.  Through the end of the first half, the score was still only 9-0 Alabama.  Through the six quarters these two teams had played against one another this season, there had not been a single touchdown scored.  Yet, even more shocking in this half was the inequality of stats.  Alabama had gained a total of 225 yards in the first half whereas LSU only gained a shocking 43 yards the entire half.

In the beginning of the second half, Alabama continued scoring when Jeremy Shelling (#90) scored his fourth field goal of the night bringing the score to 12-0.  Then, on second down, LSU quaterback Jordan Jefferson threw the first interception of the game to C.J. Mosley. Jefferson tackled and injured Mosley on the play and he did not return to the game.  Shelley then missed a 41 yard field goal just right of the uprights.  At the end of the third quarter the tide lead 15-0 after Shelley made a 44 yard field goal with 22 seconds left in the quarter.

LSU started off the fourth quarter with their first third down conversion of the night but once again their drive ends with a punt, their eighth of the night.  After stopping Alabama’s offense the tigers get the ball back on their own 35 yard line.  Two plays later, with eight minutes left in the game, Jefferson gets the ball across the 50 yard line and into Alabama territory for the first time all night.  Yet, on fourth down of the same drive Jefferson fumbled the ball and it is recovered by Alabama on the 50 yard line.

With four-and-a-half minutes left in the game, Trent Richardson rushed 34 yards to the end zone to gain the first, and only, touchdown between these two teams in either game this season.  After Shelley missed the extra point, the score is 21-0.  LSU runs out of gas and cannot muster even a single first down on their final drive and the score is unchanged.

Not only was this a night of victory for Alabama, but it was also a night of many firsts for the BCS.   It was the first championship game in which a team was shut out, McCarron (Alabama’s starting quaterback) is the first sophomore quaterback to win a national championship and Alabama’s head coach, Nick Saban, is the first coach in BCS history to win three national titles.

At the end of the night Alabama’s offensive MVP was AJ McCarron who threw for 234 yards and rushed for 11 yards, and the defensive MVP was Courtney Upshaw who had seven tackles and one sack.  But both turned the award back to their teams admitting they could not have done it without the rest of the team.