On your mark: Champagne toasts and college football

After months of hype, debate and hyperbole, we’ll finally get to see who is truly “the one.”

Along with the toasts, resolutions and champagne overflowing the rim of a glass, this New Year’s Eve has added another component – meaningful football.

The College Football Playoff kicks off its second edition Thursday, its party of four whittling to two by the time the ball drops in Times Square at midnight. As is the case at this point in the season, winners move on – losers go home.

For Clemson fans scattered across the Palmetto State, they’re hoping this Cinderella has not lost her lucky slipper.

College football’s lone undefeated team, the Tigers are looking to win their first national title since 1981.

Certainly, there is much to celebrate about this football team:

▪ a quarterback in Deshaun Watson blessed with a golden arm and quick feet;

▪ an aggressive defense that swarms in waves, overwhelming opponents;

▪ and a coach who doesn’t take himself too seriously, evidenced by his eagerness to dance with players after games despite having two left feet.

Come Dec. 31 though, none of that matters. Clemson’s season comes down to one game – 60 minutes of football – against a formidable opponent in Oklahoma at the Capital One Orange Bowl.

While the Tigers spent much of the season’s final weeks on cruise control, knowing as long as they kept on winning, their spot in the College Football Playoff was secure, Oklahoma wasn’t afforded that luxury, this after suffering 24-17 loss to a struggling Texas team.

Their margin for error next to none, the Sooners sought to use the season’s final seven weeks to the fullest. During the span, Oklahoma won each of the games, scoring more than 50 points in all but two of them.

Like the team opposite it on Thursday, Oklahoma has quite the quarterback in Baker Mayfield. A walk-on who fought his way into a starting role, he has shown toughness and true grit under center, standing tall in the pocket despite the knowledge he was going to take quite the shot by an oncoming rusher.

With a nation captivated by their every move, expect Watson and Mayfield to seize the moment as their own.

As footballs float through the night sky over South Florida, a pair of stout defensive units will hunker down in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl.

Obviously, Alabama’s defense has proven to be one of the best in college football over the past decade. Under the tutelage of Mark Dantonio, Michigan State was built in a similar mold — the combination of tough, hard-nosed defense and mistake-free ball offensively equating to victories.

What could potentially be the trump card in this matchup of college football heavyweights? None other than Alabama’s newly minted Heisman Trophy winner, Derrick Henry.

Exactly the type of running back head coach Nick Saban salivates over, Henry was fed the ball an astounding 339 times this season, rushing for 1,986 yards and 23 touchdowns.

Henry saved his best performances for Alabama’s most pivotal games, toting the rock 128 times against LSU, Auburn and Florida, gaining 670 total yards.

On his back, Alabama will ride into Glendale, Ariz., and a berth in the National Championship Game.

As for who will meet them there? Oklahoma is worthy of being among the nation’s top four teams, but there is also a reason Clemson has been No. 1 for more than half of the college football season.

Expect quite the heap of Clemson orange to clash with Alabama crimson on Jan. 11 at University of Phoenix Stadium.

Speaking of playoffs …

So much for Carolina head coach Ron Rivera facing a dilemma heading into his team’s regular-season finale with division foe Tampa Bay.

By virtue of the Panthers’ 20-13 loss at Atlanta on Sunday, more than a perfect season fell by the wayside.

Also lost as a result was an opportunity to wrap up homefield advantage throughout the NFC playoffs, and – if coaches and players chose to do so – the choice of whether to rest starters in preparation for what Carolina hopes is a deep postseason run.

Sure, the opportunity to possibly add your names to the NFL history books would certainly proven quite alluring. But with the type of injuries recently sustained by this team, along with the target Carolina has placed on its back by virtue of the success it has experienced, the choice to step back both mentally and physically certainly is warranted.

Now, all wiggle room is gone. And if things don’t go as hoped on Sunday, the NFC’s ticket to Super Bowl 50 could no longer travel through Charlotte.

Carolina must get its act together fast, or this season will merely be a dream without a fairytale ending.

Of note

A Beach Ball Classic champion will be crowned Thursday night.

The championship game of the prestigious high school boys basketball tournament is scheduled to tip off at 7:30 p.m. at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center.

This story was originally published December 28, 2015 at 1:00 AM with the headline "On your mark: Champagne toasts and college football."